displayname attribute vs display attribute

They both give you the same results but the key difference I see is that you cannot specify a ResourceType in DisplayName attribute. For an example in MVC 2, you had to subclass the DisplayName attribute to provide resource via localization. Display attribute (new in MVC3 and .NET4) supports ResourceType overload as an "out of the box" property.

I think the current answers are neglecting to highlight the actual important and significant differences and what that means for the intended usage. While they might both work in certain situations because the implementer built in support for both, they have different usage scenarios. Both can annotate properties and methods but here are some important differences:

DisplayAttribute

• defined in the System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations namespace in the System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.dll assembly
• can be used on parameters and fields
• lets you set additional properties like Description or ShortName
• can be localized with resources

DisplayNameAttribute

• DisplayName is in the System.ComponentModel namespace in System.dll
• can be used on classes and events
• cannot be localized with resources

The assembly and namespace speaks to the intended usage and localization support is the big kicker. DisplayNameAttribute has been around since .NET 2 and seems to have been intended more for naming of developer components and properties in the legacy property grid, not so much for things visible to end users that may need localization and such.

DisplayAttribute was introduced later in .NET 4 and seems to be designed specifically for labeling members of data classes that will be end-user visible, so it is more suitable for DTOs, entities, and other things of that sort. I find it rather unfortunate that they limited it so it can't be used on classes though.

EDIT: Looks like latest .NET Core source allows DisplayAttribute to be used on classes now as well.

DisplayName sets the DisplayName in the model metadata. For example:

[DisplayName("foo")]
public string MyProperty { get; set; }

and if you use in your view the following:

@Html.LabelFor(x => x.MyProperty)

it would generate:

<label for="MyProperty">foo</label>

Display does the same, but also allows you to set other metadata properties such as Name, Description, ...

Brad Wilson has a nice blog post covering those attributes.