Question

Which approach is better to use:

• BoundField.NullDisplayText isn’t set. NULL-case is foreseen in SQL query, i.e. SELECT ISNULL(amount, 0) FROM table

or

• BoundField.NullDisplayText is set, e.g. “0.00 %”. NULL-case isn’t foreseen in SQL query, i.e. SELECT amount FROM table

What do you think?

Answer 1

Can you do best of both?

• ISNULL only serves this single case
• Formatting/logic should be in the UI
• Other clients using “amount” may expect NULL so you now have an inconsistent “contract”
• 0 means zero, NULL means unknown/nothing: 2 different states