How to declare a local variable in Razor?

I am developing a web application in asp.net mvc 3. I am very new to it. In a view using razor, I'd like to declare some local variables and use it across the entire page. How can this be done?

It seems rather trivial to be able to do the following action:

@bool isUserConnected = string.IsNullOrEmpty(Model.CreatorFullName);
@if (isUserConnected)
{ // meaning that the viewing user has not been saved
    <div>
        <div> click to join us </div>
        <a id="login" href="javascript:void(0);" style="display: inline; ">join</a>
    </div>
}

But this doesn't work. Is this possible?

I think you were pretty close, try this:

@{bool isUserConnected = string.IsNullOrEmpty(Model.CreatorFullName);}
@if (isUserConnected)
{ // meaning that the viewing user has not been saved so continue
    <div>
        <div> click to join us </div>
        <a id="login" href="javascript:void(0);" style="display: inline; ">join here</a>
    </div>
}

I think the variable should be in the same block:

@{
    bool isUserConnected = string.IsNullOrEmpty(Model.CreatorFullName);
    if (isUserConnected)
    { 
        // meaning that the viewing user has not been saved
        <div>
            <div> click to join us </div>
            <a id="login" href="javascript:void(0);" style="display: inline; ">join</a>
        </div>
    }
}

You can also use:

@if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(Model.CreatorFullName))
{
...your code...
}

No need for a variable in the code

Not a direct answer to OP's problem, but it may help you too. You can declare a local variable next to some html inside a scope without trouble.

@foreach (var item in Model.Stuff)
{
    var file = item.MoreStuff.FirstOrDefault();

    <li><a href="@item.Source">@file.Name</a></li>
}

If you're looking for a int variable, one that increments as the code loops, you can use something like this:

@{
  int counter = 1;

  foreach (var item in Model.Stuff) {
    ... some code ...
    counter = counter + 1;
  }
} 

If you want a variable to be accessible across the entire page, it works well to define it at the top of the file. (You can use either an implicit or explicit type.)

@{
    // implicit type
    var something1 = "something";

    // explicit type
    string something2 = "something";
}

<div>@something1</div> @*display first variable*@
<div>@something2</div> @*display second variable*@

you can put everything in a block and easily write any code that you wish in that block just exactly the below code :

@{
        bool isUserConnected = string.IsNullOrEmpty(Model.CreatorFullName);
        if (isUserConnected)
        { // meaning that the viewing user has not been saved
            <div>
                <div> click to join us </div>
                <a id="login" href="javascript:void(0);" style="display: inline; ">join</a>
            </div>
        }
    }

it helps you to have at first a cleaner code and also you can prevent your page from loading many times different blocks of codes