C# Razor Syntax Quick Reference

I gave a presentation to another team at Microsoft yesterday on ASP.NET MVC and the Razor view engine and someone asked if there was a reference for the Razor syntax.

It turns out, there is a pretty good guide about Razor available, but it’s focused on covering the basics of web programming using Razor and inline pages and not just the Razor syntax.

So I thought it might be handy to write up a a really concise quick reference about the Razor syntax.

Syntax/Sample	Razor	Web Forms Equivalent (or remarks)
Code Block	@{ int x = 123; string y = "because."; }	<% int x = 123; string y = "because."; %>
Expression (Html Encoded)	<span>model.Message</span>	<span><%: model.Message %></span>
Expression (Unencoded)	<span>@Html.Raw(model.Message) </span>	<span><%= model.Message %></span>
Combining Text and markup	@foreach(var item in items) { <span>@item.Prop</span> }	<% foreach(var item in items) { %> <span><%: item.Prop %></span> <% } %>
Mixing code and Plain text	@if (foo) { <text>Plain Text</text> }	<% if (foo) { %> Plain Text <% } %>
Mixing code and plain text (alternate)	@if (foo) { @:Plain Text is @bar }	Same as above
Email Addresses	Hi philha@example.com	Razor recognizes basic email format and is smart enough not to treat the @ as a code delimiter
Explicit Expression	<span>ISBN@(isbnNumber)</span>	In this case, we need to be explicit about the expression by using parentheses.
Escaping the @ sign	<span>In Razor, you use the @@foo to display the value of foo</span>	@@ renders a single @ in the response.
Server side Comment	@* This is a server side multiline comment *@	<%-- This is a server side multiline comment --%>
Calling generic method	@(MyClass.MyMethod())	Use parentheses to be explicit about what the expression is.
Creating a Razor Delegate	@{ Funcobject

> b = @<strong>@item</strong>; } @b("Bold this")
Generates a Func that you can call from within Razor. See this blog post for more details.
Mixing expressions and text

Hello @title. @name.

Hello <%: title %>. <%: name %>.

Notice in the last example that Razor is smart enough to know that the ending period is a literal text punctuation and not meant to indicate that it’s trying to call a method or property of the expression.

Let me know if there are other examples you think should be placed in this guide. I hope you find this helpful.