ASP.NET: HtmlGenericControl(“div”) or Panel

Question

Is there any difference in overhead between using Panel or HtmlContainerControl when needing to create a serverside container in ASP.NET.

HtmlContainerControl Container = new HtmlGenericControl("div");

Or

Panel Container = new Panel();

Also, are there any differences in how it is rendered in different browsers? I've noticed that Panel seems to render as a div in all browsers I have used.

Answer 1

Panel supports extra functionality such as Direction, BackImageUrl, ScrollBars, etc... However if all you need is a div, I would use HtmlGenericControl .

It is explicit which makes for better code readability . It also gives you more control over the markup, eg you may not agree with how something like BackImageUrl has been implemented by Microsoft.