HTML Helper checking if the date is MinValue

Question

Can I configure the HTML Helper to display String.Empty if my date is MinValue?

${Html.TextBoxFor(v=>v.Date)}

How can I do this?

Answer 1

Why don't you do it in your View?

Caution: Razor syntax

@if(v.Date != DateTime.MinValue)
{
  Html.TextBoxFor(v => v.Date);
}
else {
  //show whatever
}

Answer 2

There are a few similar questions like

• Html.TextboxFor default value for Integer/Decimal to be Empty instead of 0
• Display empty textbox using Html.TextBoxFor on a not-null property in an EF entity

If you have full control over the viewmodel, one option would be to make the date field nullable and have the accessor return null if the date is equal to DateTime.MinValue.

If you don't want to change your viewmodel, you can write your own html helper and put the logic to create an empty textbox there. That allows you to keep logic out of your view, where it's difficult to test.

Answer 3

Make your property nullable and it won't default to the min date. If that's a database field and you can't do that then you should create a ViewModel property that is and have it compare against the min value and return null in the get{}