How HtmlHelper.AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes works behind the scenes? (Method calls itself)

Question

I did a reflection with ILSpy of System.Web.MVC.dll and found out the following code:

public static RouteValueDictionary AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes(object htmlAttributes)
    {
        return HtmlHelper.AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes(htmlAttributes);
    }

Can someone help me to understand what exactly is happening here? This should lead to a StackOverflow Exception, but doesn't.

What makes you think it would throw a `StackOverflowException`? The method is calling the `AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes()` method of the `HtmlHelper` class — , May 15 '16 at 03:59
Where? This is the [source code](https://aspnetwebstack.codeplex.com/SourceControl/latest#src/System.Web.Mvc/HtmlHelper.cs) for `HtmlHelper`. The method you have shown is not code in the `HtmlHelper` class. Its in another class which is calling the `AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes(htmlAttributes)` static method of `HtmlHelper`. They just happen to have the same name. — , May 15 '16 at 05:33

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:29

2

As Stephen Muecke commented above, the method AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes from System.Web.MVC.HtmlHelper is calling a method with the same name but from System.Web.WebPages.Html.HtmlHelper.

The ILSpy is not explicitly about that. I needed to hover the class to show from where it was coming:

I'm not the first with that doubt, it's a common mistake to be made, I believe.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:29

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answered May 15 '16 at 15:33

Arthur Castro

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How HtmlHelper.AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes works behind the scenes? (Method calls itself)

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