5.3. Using Controls

Server controls have two distinct techniques for using a control in a Web Forms page that can be both useful and confusing: declarative and programmatic techniques. Each has its own purpose, and in some situations (such as when using code-behind), both techniques must be used.

Typically, when you write your pages without code-behind files, you use the declarative technique for using controls in your page. If you need to access those controls programmatically, you would do so by referring to the value of the control's id attribute. For example, if you have an ASP.NET Label control declared as follows: