Question

given:

public class Customer
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public DateTime Birthdate { get; set; }
}

I have List where some birthdates weren’t entered and so when I bind to GridView it shows DateTime.MinValue. What are some different ways to show a blank in a gridview if the birthdate is DateTime.MinValue?

Answer 1

Unless that’s mapped to a Database, I’d make it nullable:

public class Customer
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public DateTime? Birthdate { get; set; }
}

EDIT:

If it IS mapped, then I’d just make a readonly nullable value for it:

public DateTime? BirthdateDisplay
{
   get
   {
      if (this.Birthdate == default(DateTime))
         return null;
      else
         return this.Birthdate;
   }   
}