Create dynamic links in the navigation panel - asp.net

Question

I am trying to dynamically create my top navigation panel in ASP.NET Core MVC 6.
I know it's simple but I cannot figure out how to make it work. Here is what I do (simplified):
My Model:
public class IP_Category
{
public int id { get; set; }
public string DisplayName { get; set; }
}
in my controller:
public IActionResult Index()
{
//This way I dynamically pass data to my View
ViewBag.Categories = _repository.ReturnCategories();
return View();
}
in my cshtml page:
#{
//this info is in the top of the page, here I retrieve data passed from
//controller and save it as a local variable
var categories = (List<IP_Category>)ViewBag.Categories;
}
Then later in the _Layout where I take care of the navigation:
<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
<li><a asp-controller="Home" asp-action="Index">Home</a></li>
<li><a asp-controller="Home" asp-action="About">About</a></li>
<li><a asp-controller="Home" asp-action="Contact">Contact</a></li>
#foreach (var category in categories)
{
<li><a asp-controller="Home" asp-action="#category.DisplayName">#category.DisplayName</a></li>
}
</ul>
The problem occurs with asp-action="#category.DisplayName" which does not generate appropriate href in my actual page.
So the question is what am I doing wrong? How can I pass category.DisplayName to my asp-action tag so the links work correctly?
Edit 1 - Adding more code:
Here is what was generated (note the missing href tag)
<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
<li>Home</li>
<li>About</li>
<li>Contact</li>
<li>Item1</li>
<li>Item2</li>
</ul>

Answer 1

if the controller and action don't match an existing controller and action then no href will be rendered. I suspect that #category.DisplayName does not match any actual action name on your home controller. Seems more likely that you have an action named Category that expects a parameter corresponding to the #category.DisplayName so it should be passed as a route parameter not as the action name
#foreach (var category in categories)
{
<li><a asp-controller="Home"
asp-action="Category"
asp-route-category="#category.DisplayName">#category.DisplayName</a></li>
}