Question

For some reason, when I add the ternary if statement to this bit of code, a NullPointerException is thrown. I’m not sure quite why…any ideas? This is the method for jqGrid – returning the Json data.

var gridModel = from entity in vendorList.AsQueryable()
            select new
            {
                VendorId = "<a href='/Admin/DetailsPlan/" + entity.VendorId + "'><img src='/Images/next_icon_sm.png' class='icon' alt='View Vendor' /></a>",
                VendorNm = entity.VendorNm,
                Phone = (entity.Phone.Length < 5) ? String.Format("{0:(###) ###-####}", Convert.ToInt64(entity.Phone)) : entity.Phone,
                City = entity.City,
                State = entity.LkState.StateAbbr
            };

Can you not have a ternary if statement in that location?

Answer 1

One question, is entity.Phone null? If so, that would be the cause.

Side note: I have to say, that is an odd way of storing a phone number..

UPDATE

The problem is with the “entity.Phone.Length” part. If Phone is null, then you can’t access it’s length property… hence the error. So you need to add a null test. Something like:

Phone = ((entity.Phone != null) && (entity.Phone.Length < 5)) ? String.Format("{0:(###) ###-####}", Convert.ToInt64(entity.Phone)) : entity.Phone

That way, if it is null you are just emitting a null value.