Passing list to view in asp.net mvc

asp.net, asp.net-mvc, c#, razor

Solution

`List<T>` implements the `IEnumerable<T>` interface:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6sh2ey19(v=vs.110).aspx

It is typically a best practice to try to work with interfaces where possible to keep your code decoupled, so that's why the `View` was scaffolded like that. In this instance, you could pass any other `Movie` collection that implements `IEnumerable<T>` to your `View`, and your `View` would happily render without issue.

So, imagine you have another `Action` in some other `Controller` like:

    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        Queue<Movie> movies = new Queue<Movie>();
        movies.Enqueue(db.Movies.Single(m => m.Title == "Flash Gordon"));
        movies.Enqueue(db.Movies.Single(m => m.Title == "Star Wars"));
        return View( "Movie/Index", movies );
    }

Because `Queue<T>` implements `IEnumerable<T>`, `movies` will get rendered by the same `View` without having to make any changes to it. If your `View` was typed to `List<Movies>`, you would need to create a whole separate `View` to accommodate your `Queue<Movies>` model!

Problem

Here is my action method from controller. ``` public class MoviesController : Controller { private MovieDBContext db = new MovieDBContext(); // GET: /Movies/ public ActionResult Index() { return View( db.Movies.ToList() ); } } ``` As it can be seen a `List` is being passed to `View` that is why I am expecting to work with it as `List`in `view` but in `View` it works as `IEnumerable` Following is the first line from `View` ``` @model IEnumerable<MVCWebApplication2.Models.Movie> ``` Why passed value that was `List` behaves as `IEnumerable`? Is `IEnumerable` super class of `List`?

Original source