How to handle nulls in ASP.NET MVC

Question

I have user registration form. It has field Date of birth. It is not compulsory in database also not on UI. But while create when i am goiing to assign it to objects property, i have to convert it in to date format. But if i have not selected it, it will become null in the FormCollection object. like

User.DOB=Convert.ToDateTime(collection["DOB"]);

Now issue is if it collection["DOB"]is null then it throws exception. I can not assign default value here. So how can i handle this situation?

Jamie Dixon · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-20 13:24:26Z

2

You'll probably be better off using DateTime.TryParse for this.

This way you can check whether you're working with a valid date or not.

DateTime dateOfBirth;

bool isValidDateOfBirth = DateTime.TryParse(collection["DOB"], out dateOfBirth);

if(isValidDateOfBirth)
{
 // do stuff
}
else
{
 // do some other stuff
}

answered Dec 20, 2010 at 13:24

Jamie Dixon

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4 Comments

Dan Atkinson Over a year ago

Or, why bother creating the bool when you could just check the direct output of the TryParse - if(DateTime.TryParse...).

Jamie Dixon Over a year ago

You can do that also. I included the bool here to make it explicitly clear to the OP what's going on. I don't know their skill level so I find this aproach (being a bit more expansive) to be quite useful.

Red Swan Over a year ago

I agree, but what if collection have null value, so what action have to take ?generally what developers does, if there is no defaults, and date is mandatory in DB?

Jamie Dixon Over a year ago

If you're collecting data from a form that is required, both client side and server side validation need to be performed. There are many ways you can do this. Here's one of those ways: weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/01/15/…

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