Question

Is it possible to shorthand the code below?

Essentially metaItem.Text is a string property that contains either “true” or “false” – I’m dealing with objects I have no control over here so I know it should be a boolean instead.

First, I need to check if metaItem.Text contains a value (i.e. not an empty string). If so, convert it to a boolean. Then set the Visible property of a user control (relatedLinks) to that value.

if (metaItem.Text != string.Empty)
{
    bool bShowRelatedLinks = false;
    bool.TryParse(metaItem.Text, out bShowRelatedLinks);

    if (bShowRelatedLinks)
    {
        relatedLinks.Visible = true;
    }
    else
    {
        relatedLinks.Visible = false;
    }
}

The reasons for wanting to use shorthand is that I have a bunch of these conditions to show/hide various parts of the page.

Answer 1

bool bShowRelatedLinks = false;
bool.TryParse(metaItem.Text, out bShowRelatedLinks);
relatedLinks.Visible = bShowRelatedLinks;

Explanation: Firstly, TryParse() can be given null (it will set out out parameter to false if parsing fails). Secondly, there’s no need for the if test when setting relatedLinks. You already have the bool value, so just assign that.

If you’re certain that metaItem.Text is "true", "false", or null, you can simplify further:

relatedLinks.Visible = Convert.ToBoolean(metaItem.Text);