#Html.DisplayFor for Empty - asp.net-mvc

Question

I am trying to display empty string when model.EndDate is 0
#Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => model.EndDate)
I tried
#Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => model.EndDate == 0 ? "" : model.EndDate.ToString())
and
#Html.Display("End Date",model.EndDate == 0 ? "" : model.EndDate.ToString())
both did not worked for me. Both of the displaying empty when data is available.

Answer 1

Do a conditional outside the DisplayFor:
#if (Model.EndDate != 0)
{
Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => model.EndDate)
}

Answer 2

You can't compare a datetime to 0 in asp.net.
error CS0019: Operator `==' cannot be applied to operands of type `System.DateTime' and `int'
A DateTime is a value type so it get a default value of DateTime.MinValue when it isn't set.
using System;
public class Test {
public static DateTime badDate;
public static DateTime goodDate = DateTime.Now;
public static void Main(string[] args) {
Console.WriteLine(goodDate == DateTime.MinValue ? "" : goodDate.ToString());
Console.WriteLine(badDate == DateTime.MinValue ? "" : badDate.ToString());
}
}

Answer 3

How about this one ?
DateTime dt;
if (DateTime.TryParse("Your Date", out dt))
{
//Now you have validated the date
//Your code goes here
}

Answer 4

I think you should make your model property be a nullable type. So for example if its type is DateTime then declare the property as a nullable DateTime:
public DateTime? EndDate { get; set; }
this way instead of a 0 date (whatever that means) you will have no value. This also makes sense especially if this model property is coming from the database and is nullable.
You can read more about the nullable types here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2cf62fcy(v=vs.80).aspx

Answer 5

I didn't like the answers given above because adding IF Statements to everything just slows your system down, in my case i needed to display a default string value several times in each row of a list view when the class property was a null value.
So have a look at the MS Docs here:
DisplayFormatAttribute.NullDisplayText Property
The following example shows how to use the NullDisplayText to define a caption to display when the data field is null.
// Display the text [Null] when the data field is empty.
// Also, convert empty string to null for storing.
[DisplayFormat(ConvertEmptyStringToNull = true, NullDisplayText = "[Null]")]
public object Size;