Question

I create a new asp.net custom control. This control get its data via a list of string.
Now I want to know what is the better solution for me? storing List<String> or string[] ?

Answer 1

Based on this answer to another question, you’d be better off storing it as an array, as the list itself adds some storage overhead.

Whether or not you create a list out of the array after you retrieve it from the viewstate is up to you.

To those saying “use a list, it gives you more niceties than an array” – once the collection is in the ViewState, it doesn’t matter whether it has nice Add methods or not.

public List<string> MyItemsFromViewState
{
    get { return new List<string>((string[])ViewState["MyItems"]); }
    set { ViewState["MyItems"] = value.ToArray(); }
}