Question

I am populating my object with results from a database via a sqlDataReader like so:

foreach (DataRow dr in dt.Rows)
{
  wt = new WorkTasksDto
  {
    CompletedBy = dr.IsNull("CompletedBy") ? (DateTime?)null : (DateTime?)dr["CompletedBy"]
  };
}

As you can see im checking for a DbNUll, but one of my records for my date field is blank. Not null, just like an empty varchar field and when I try to do my DateTime cast, I get an invalid cast error.

How do I check for a blank field as well as a DbNull field?

Answer 1

Not very clean but this seems to work.

foreach (DataRow dr in dt.Rows)                  
{                       
     DateTime myDate;
     if(dr.IsNull("CompletedBy")) 
         myDate = DateTime.MinValue;
     else
     {
         if(DateTime.TryParse(dr["CompletedBy"].ToString(), out myDate) == false)
             myDate = DateTime.MinValue;
     }
     wt = new WorkTasksDto                              
     {                                  
         CompletedBy = (myDate == DateTime.MinValue ? null : myDate);
     };         
}