What is the difference between SessionState and ViewState?

asp.netSession StateViewstate

asp.net Problem Overview

What is the difference between SessionState and ViewState in ASP.NET?

asp.net Solutions

Solution 1 - asp.net

Session State contains information that is pertaining to a specific session (by a particular client/browser/machine) with the server. It's a way to track what the user is doing on the site.. across multiple pages...amid the statelessness of the Web. e.g. the contents of a particular user's shopping cart is session data. Cookies can be used for session state.
View State on the other hand is information specific to particular web page. It is stored in a hidden field so that it isn't visible to the user. It is used to maintain the user's illusion that the page remembers what he did on it the last time - dont give him a clean page every time he posts back. Check this page for more.

Solution 2 - asp.net

Session state is saved on the server, ViewState is saved in the page.

Session state is usually cleared after a period of inactivity from the user (no request happened containing the session id in the request cookies).

The view state is posted on subsequent post back in a hidden field.

Solution 3 - asp.net

SessionState

  • Can be persisted in memory, which makes it a fast solution. Which means state cannot be shared in the Web Farm/Web Garden.
  • Can be persisted in a Database, useful for Web Farms / Web Gardens.
  • Is Cleared when the session dies - usually after 20min of inactivity.

ViewState

  • Is sent back and forth between the server and client, taking up bandwidth.
  • Has no expiration date.
  • Is useful in a Web Farm / Web Garden

Solution 4 - asp.net

Usage: If you're going to store information that you want to access on different web pages, you can use SessionState

If you want to store information that you want to access from the same page, then you can use Viewstate

Storage The Viewstate is stored within the page itself (in encrypted text), while the Sessionstate is stored in the server.

The SessionState will clear in the following conditions

  1. Cleared by programmer
  2. Cleared by user
  3. Timeout

Solution 5 - asp.net

Session is used mainly for storing user specific data [ session specific data ]. In the case of session you can use the value for the whole session until the session expires or the user abandons the session.
Viewstate is the type of data that has scope only in the page in which it is used. You canot have viewstate values accesible to other pages unless you transfer those values to the desired page. Also in the case of viewstate all the server side control datas are transferred to the server as key value pair in __Viewstate and transferred back and rendered to the appropriate control in client when postback occurs.

Categories
Recommended asp.net Solutions
Recommended Session State Solutions
Recommended Viewstate Solutions

Previous Solution:

How can I add an item to a SelectList in ASP.net MVC

asp.net MvcSelectlist

Next Solution:

jQuery UI dialog positioning

JqueryJquery Ui

Attributions

All content for this solution is sourced from the original question on Stackoverflow.

The content on this page is licensed under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.

Content TypeOriginal AuthorOriginal Content on Stackoverflow
QuestionNatriumView Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - asp.netGishuView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - asp.netthinkbeforecodingView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - asp.netJesper Fyhr KnudsenView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - asp.netCyril GuptaView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - asp.netrahulView Answer on Stackoverflow