Question

I’m missing something, how do I make this work?

var now = DateTime.Now;
string loadStartDate = Request.QueryString["sd"] == String.Empty ? now.AddMonths( -14 ).ToShortDateString();
string loadEndDate = Request.QueryString[ "ed" ] == String.Empty ? now.ToShortDateString();

Basically when the page loades if sd and/or ed is blank, then fill the date with my pre-defined stuff.

Answer 1

You are forgetting a : and the part after it.

The conditional operator has three parts:

• predicate (Request.QueryString["sd"] == String.Empty)
• true branch
• false branch

You are missing the false branch syntax and value.

I would write it as:

string loadStartDate = string.IsNullOrWhitespace(Request.QueryString["sd"])
                       ? now.AddMonths( -14 ).ToShortDateString()
                       : Request.QueryString["sd"];

Note:

string.IsNullOrWhitespace is new to .NET 4.0, so use string.IsNullOrEmpty for prior versions.