user control and master page

Actually you cannot compare a master page to a user control.They have no relation. A master page is a page that provides the same view for multiple forms. So for example if you have 2 pages that have a menu, then you put this menu in a master page, and make those 2 pages children of this master page so they can get the menu control. While a user control is a control that you make in order to use it in many places without having to write the same code again, so for example you can make a user control that has a label and its text is hello. So now you can drag and drop this control on any form and you will be able to see this label. Offcourse this is a small example compared to what you can do with user control, so for example i made a slider once a user control and used it in many sites by just drag and drop instead if writing everything again. Anyway for further info visit those links :

Mater page :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wtxbf3hh.aspx[^]

User control :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/y6wb1a0e.aspx[^]

Good luck and please dont mix unrelated things together.

Ok i will give you easy examples for this one.

Take a look at the upperpart of this page where you can see the logo of Code Project and tabs like: Home, Article, Discussion, etc. This part is called the Master Page. Master pages are used basically to show the site's menu and those things that developer would want to show on each and every, perhaps all pages.

User Controls do often change. Look at the uppermost part of this page. You will see there your Login name or your username including your points and the Signout button. This isn't actually a User Control but the work of this is just as the same with User Control which changes most of the time. It is like 2 controls which change based on Login status and whoever is logged in.

Hope you get it from here.

Regards,
Eduard