Question

MVC3 VB.NET application. I have the below section of code in a function. This code is supposed to only fire if the handout1 is not nothing. But for some reason it is going into the then block when the handout1 is nothing in the database… I have tried a hundred different ways of checking but it is still trying to run that line of code even when there is nothing to assign to it….

If Not _class1.Contains("---") Then
    _body = _body.Replace("[[Class1]]", _class1 + " : " + _day1Class.course_title)
    Dim _coursesREF As cours = db.courses.Where(Function(f) f.course_ref = class1).First
    If Not String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(_coursesREF.handoutFile1) OrElse Not IsDBNull(_coursesREF.handoutFile1) Then
        _class1Handout = New Net.Mail.Attachment((Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory) + "\CourseHandouts\") + _coursesREF.handoutFile1)
    End If
Else
    _body = _body.Replace("[[NL]][[Class1]]", String.Empty)
End If

Anyone see what I am obviously overlooking???

Answer 1

Try putting a break point in and see what Handout is equal to

If Not _class1.Contains("---") Then


   ''# Put a breakpoint on the next line
   Dim breakVariable = handout1
   ''# when the breakpoint fires, inspect the value of `handout1`


   _body = _body.Replace("[[Class1]]", _class1 + " : " + _day1Class.course_title)
   Dim _coursesREF As cours = db.courses.Where(Function(f) f.course_ref = class1).First
    If Not String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(_coursesREF.handoutFile1) OrElse Not IsDBNull(_coursesREF.handoutFile1) Then
                                _class1Handout = New Net.Mail.Attachment((Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory) + "\CourseHandouts\") + _coursesREF.handoutFile1)
     End If
 Else
    _body = _body.Replace("[[NL]][[Class1]]", String.Empty)
 End If

also, upon further inspection, can you modify

If Not String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(_coursesREF.handoutFile1) OrElse 
   Not IsDBNull(_coursesREF.handoutFile1) Then

and change it to

If Not String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(_coursesREF.handoutFile1) AndAlso 
   Not(_coursesREF.handoutFile1 Is Nothing) Then