Question

This is probably a silly question, but I am trying to stuff an anonymous object in ViewBag like so:

ViewBag.Stuff = new { Name = "Test", Email = "[e-mail]" };

and access it from a View like so:

@ViewBag.Stuff.Name

I understand ViewBag is dynamic and that “Stuff” is an anonymous object… but when I look with the debugger from the View line above, I can see all the properties with the proper values. Why does the model binder have such a hard time with this?

Is there a good way to accomplish this without creating a model class? I want to continue using new {}

Answer 1

Essentially the issue is that anonymous types are generated as internal (see answer), making hard typed references to the object’s property impossible from the View. This article provides a more detailed explanation:

http://www.heartysoft.com/anonymous-types-c-sharp-4-dynamic

It is possible to accomplish with the use of a Dynamic Anonymous wrapper class (@Dakill’s answer), but gets ugly fast and should make a programmer question why he/she would do so.