Question

My view

<table>
                 <tr>
        <td>
            Middle Name : 
        </td>
        <td>
            @Html.EditorFor(model => @Model.EmployeeDetail.MiddleName)
        </td>
        <td>
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => @Model.EmployeeDetail.MiddleName)
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>
            Last Name : 
        </td>
        <td>
            @Html.EditorFor(model => @Model.EmployeeDetail.LastName)
        </td>
        <td>
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => @Model.EmployeeDetail.LastName)
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>
            Date of Birth  : 
        </td>
        <td>
            @Html.EditorFor(model => @Model.EmployeeDetail.DateOfBirth)
        </td>
        <td>
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => @Model.EmployeeDetail.DateOfBirth)
        </td>
    </tr>
</table>

My Controller action

        public ActionResult Index()
    {
        var id = 0;
        if (Session["id"] != null)
        {
            id = Convert.ToInt32((Session["id"].ToString()));
        }
        var empDetails = _empRepository.GetEmployeeDetails(id);
        var emp = new UserViewModel { EmployeeDetail = empDetails };
        return View(emp);
    }

My viewmodel

public class UserViewModel
{
    public EmployeeDetail EmployeeDetail { get; set; }
}

my model

public partial class EmployeeDetail
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public int UserId { get; set; }
    public System.DateTime DateOfBirth { get; set; }
    public string IsAdmin { get; set; }
}

In my view I am getting object reference at @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => @Model.EmployeeDetail.DateOfBirth)

I am getting this error due to viewmodel “emp” which I am passing to view from controller action is null as I dont have any data in database for that particular Id.

How can I avoid this object reference error.

Answer 1

Instead of

 @Html.EditorFor(model => @Model.EmployeeDetail.DateOfBirth)

use

 @Html.EditorFor(model => model.EmployeeDetail.DateOfBirth)

You should do it for all lines…

 @Html.SomethingFor(model => model.EmployeeDetail.Something) // Not @Model.Something

UPDATE:

Don’t let EmployeeDetail to be null.

public class UserViewModel
{
     private EmployeeDetail _employeeDetail = new EmployeeDetail();

     public EmployeeDetail EmployeeDetail 
     { 
        get { return _employeeDetail; }
        set { _employeeDetail = value ?? new EmployeeDetail(); } 
     }
}