What’s the difference between “return View()” and “return PartialView()”

Return View() – Renders an .aspx|.cshtml page

• Renders a normal .aspx page that can also contain Partial Views

Return PartialView() – Renders .ascx|.cshtml Control

• Renders a segment of HTML to the browser that can be requested through AJAX or Non-AJAX requests alike.

View() returns ViewResult
PartialView() returns PartialViewResult
both inherit from ViewResultBase

The difference is described by Reflector below…

public class PartialViewResult : ViewResultBase
{
   // Methods
   protected override ViewEngineResult FindView(ControllerContext context)
   {
      ViewEngineResult result = base.ViewEngineCollection.FindPartialView(context, base.ViewName);
      if (result.View != null)
      {
         return result;
      }
      StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
      foreach (string str in result.SearchedLocations)
      {
         builder.AppendLine();
         builder.Append(str);
      }
      throw new InvalidOperationException(string.Format(CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture, MvcResources.Common_PartialViewNotFound, new object[] { base.ViewName, builder }));
   }
}


public class ViewResult : ViewResultBase
{
   // Fields
   private string _masterName;

   // Methods
   protected override ViewEngineResult FindView(ControllerContext context)
   {
      ViewEngineResult result = base.ViewEngineCollection.FindView(context, base.ViewName, this.MasterName);
      if (result.View != null)
      {
         return result;
      }
      StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
      foreach (string str in result.SearchedLocations)
      {
         builder.AppendLine();
         builder.Append(str);
      }
      throw new InvalidOperationException(string.Format(CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture, MvcResources.Common_ViewNotFound, new object[] { base.ViewName, builder }));
   }

   // Properties
   public string MasterName
   {
      get
      {
         return (this._masterName ?? string.Empty);
      }
      set
      {
         this._masterName = value;
      }
   }
}