What's the difference between RouteLink and ActionLink in ASP.NET MVC?

.net asp.net-mvc html-helper actionlink routelink
Guy picture Guy · May 14, 2009 · Viewed 39.7k times · Source

I think that the title pretty much sums it up:

What's the difference between RouteLink() and ActionLink() in ASP.NET MVC?

i.e. when do you use Html.RouteLink() and when do you use Html.ActionLink() in your View?

Answer

Chad Moran picture Chad Moran · May 14, 2009

Action and Routes don't have to have a 1:1 relationship.

ActionLink will generate the URL to get to an action using the first matching route by action name.

RouteLink will generate a URL to a specific route determined either by name or route values.

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