What is the @Html.DisplayFor syntax for?

Html.DisplayFor() will render the DisplayTemplate that matches the property’s type.

If it can’t find any, I suppose it invokes .ToString().

If you don’t know about display templates, they’re partial views that can be put in a DisplayTemplates folder inside the view folder associated to a controller.

Example:

If you create a view named String.cshtml inside the DisplayTemplates folder of your views folder (e.g Home, or Shared) with the following code:

@model string

@if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(Model)) {
   <strong>Null string</strong>
}
else {
   @Model
}

Then @Html.DisplayFor(model => model.Title) (assuming that Title is a string) will use the template and display <strong>Null string</strong> if the string is null, or empty.