Question

I have a follow up question on the accepted answer given here: Two models in one view in ASP MVC 3

I have three models, Types, Causes, Locations that I would like to list the contents of in one view. Based on the answer in the link above I made a new model that combined the that looks like this:

public class Combined
    {
        public IEnumerable<Place> Place { get; set; }
        public IEnumerable<Type> Type { get; set; }
        public IEnumerable<Cause> Cause { get; set; }
    }

I made it IEnumerable<> because as I understand it, thats what I want when I just want to list the contents of these models in a foreach loop. Then I made this controller for the view:

[ChildActionOnly]
    public ActionResult overSightHeadings()
    {
        Combined Combined = new Combined();
        return View(Combined);
    }

And finally the view (I was just trying to list from one of the tables first):

@model mvcAvvikelser.Models.Combined
@{
    Layout = null;
}
<tr>
@foreach (var Type in Model.Type)
{
    <th> @Html.DisplayTextFor(ModelItem => Type.Name)</th>
}
</tr>

The problem with this code is that it throws up a null exception when the foreach code starts.

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

So I am not entirely sure what I am doing wrong here, should it not be an IEnumerable, have I initialized the model incorrectly in the controller?

Answer 1

Should be this

[ChildActionOnly]
public ActionResult overSightHeadings()
{
    Combined combined = new Combined();
    combined.Types = new List<Type>();
    combined.Causes = new List<Cause>();
    combined.Places = new List<Place>();

    return View(Combined);
}

Note that I have changed the property names to plural. That defines your property as collection.