Question

I have a formatted string variable to which passing to a ViewData Variable.
My Controller basically looks like this:

if(ModelState.IsValid)
{
    string total = "$2.00";
    ViewData["totalSales"] = total;
    return View();
}

I have an html helper function in my view like this:

<%: Html.Label(ViewData["totalSales"].Tostring()) %>

however the asp.net mvc engine is generating this :

<label for="$2_00">00</label>

I just wanna pass the money value to the view and display it.
It appears that the decimal is breaking the value. However there has got to be a way around this.
Am I making a noob mistake here ?

---

Well I was able to bypass this by doing this:

<p><%: ViewData["totalSales"].ToString() %> </p>

But this does not explain why a decimal in a string is causing data loss.
Any ideas ?

Answer 1

Use String.Format() with currency

Your mistake is that the framework will automatically escape/transform special characters (such as the “.”) when they’re turned into HTML attributes. That’s by design.

Also, why are you passing a hard coded string via ViewData? Is that computed from your models? You may not be using Label correctly.