Question

I’ve had some success passing query results to my view.

Unfortunately the ASP/Razor code balks in the foreach when the resulting model list has 0 entries.

@foreach (var action in (List<LemonTrader.Models.Lemon>)ViewData["lemons"]) {
    <tr>
        <td>
            @Html.Encode( action.acidity)

If there are no entries it says something about a null exception.

What is the best way to handle the case where the list is empty?

I guess I could put a code block in and have it do an if/then branch. This seems to deviate a bit from the elegant razor one-liner of @foreach.

I guess I could put blank stuff in the controller and then just display something blank.

Those don’t seem like very elegant approaches.

Any better ideas?

Answer 1

Try do next:

1. Create additional model (viewmodel) in Models folder (for example LemonsView.cs) and put there:

   public class LemonList
{
public IQueryable<Lemon> AllLemons { get; set; }
}

2. Create a controller (LemonController.cs)

   public ActionResult Lemons
{
var model = new LemonList();
var lemons = db.Lemon;

       model.AllLemons = lemons;
       return View(model);
   }`
   

3. In View:

   @using LemonTrader.Models.AllLemons
   foreach(var item in Model.LemonList){
   @item.Some
}

If in result you will have null, it will be a blank page

Have fun!