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BoundField.ConvertEmptyStringToNull Property

  • Reference

Definition

Namespace:
System.Web.UI.WebControls
Assembly:
System.Web.dll

Gets or sets a value indicating whether empty string values ("") are automatically converted to null values when the data field is updated in the data source.

public:
 virtual property bool ConvertEmptyStringToNull { bool get(); void set(bool value); };
public virtual bool ConvertEmptyStringToNull { get; set; }
member this.ConvertEmptyStringToNull : bool with get, set
Public Overridable Property ConvertEmptyStringToNull As Boolean

Property Value

Boolean

true to automatically convert empty string values to null values; otherwise, the false. The default is true.

Examples

The following code example demonstrates how to use the ConvertEmptyStringToNull property to specify that an empty string ("") field value should automatically be converted to null.


<%@ Page language="C#" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
  <head runat="server">
    <title>BoundField Example</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
        
      <h3>BoundField Example</h3>

      <!-- The GridView control automatically sets the columns     -->
      <!-- specified in the datakeynames property as read-only.    -->
      <!-- No input controls are rendered for these columns in     -->
      <!-- edit mode.                                              -->
      <asp:gridview id="CustomersGridView" 
        datasourceid="CustomersSqlDataSource" 
        autogeneratecolumns="false"
        autogenerateeditbutton="true"
        datakeynames="CustomerID"  
        allowpaging="true" 
        runat="server">
        
        <columns>
          <asp:boundfield datafield="CustomerID"
            readonly="true"      
            headertext="Customer ID"/>
          <asp:boundfield datafield="CompanyName"
            convertemptystringtonull="true"
            headertext="Customer Name"/>
          <asp:boundfield datafield="Address"
            convertemptystringtonull="true"
            headertext="Address"/>
          <asp:boundfield datafield="City"
            convertemptystringtonull="true"
            headertext="City"/>
          <asp:boundfield datafield="PostalCode"
            convertemptystringtonull="true"
            headertext="ZIP Code"/>
          <asp:boundfield datafield="Country"
            convertemptystringtonull="true"
            headertext="Country"/>
        </columns>
        
      </asp:gridview>
            
      <!-- This example uses Microsoft SQL Server and connects  -->
      <!-- to the Northwind sample database. Use an ASP.NET     -->
      <!-- expression to retrieve the connection string value   -->
      <!-- from the Web.config file.                            -->
      <asp:sqldatasource id="CustomersSqlDataSource"  
        selectcommand="Select [CustomerID], [CompanyName], [Address], [City], [PostalCode], [Country] From [Customers]"
        updatecommand="Update Customers Set CompanyName=@CompanyName, Address=@Address, City=@City, PostalCode=@PostalCode, Country=@Country Where (CustomerID = @CustomerID)"
        connectionstring="<%$ ConnectionStrings:NorthWindConnectionString%>"
        runat="server">
      </asp:sqldatasource>
            
    </form>
  </body>
</html>


<%@ Page language="VB" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
  <head runat="server">
    <title>BoundField Example</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
        
      <h3>BoundField Example</h3>

      <!-- The GridView control automatically sets the columns     -->
      <!-- specified in the datakeynames property as read-only.    -->
      <!-- No input controls are rendered for these columns in     -->
      <!-- edit mode.                                              -->
      <asp:gridview id="CustomersGridView" 
        datasourceid="CustomersSqlDataSource" 
        autogeneratecolumns="false"
        autogenerateeditbutton="true"
        datakeynames="CustomerID" 
        allowpaging="true" 
        runat="server">
        
        <columns>
          <asp:boundfield datafield="CustomerID"
            readonly="true"      
            headertext="Customer ID"/>
          <asp:boundfield datafield="CompanyName"
            convertemptystringtonull="true"
            headertext="Customer Name"/>
          <asp:boundfield datafield="Address"
            convertemptystringtonull="true"
            headertext="Address"/>
          <asp:boundfield datafield="City"
            convertemptystringtonull="true"
            headertext="City"/>
          <asp:boundfield datafield="PostalCode"
            convertemptystringtonull="true"
            headertext="ZIP Code"/>
          <asp:boundfield datafield="Country"
            convertemptystringtonull="true"
            headertext="Country"/>
        </columns>
        
      </asp:gridview>
            
      <!-- This example uses Microsoft SQL Server and connects  -->
      <!-- to the Northwind sample database. Use an ASP.NET     -->
      <!-- expression to retrieve the connection string value   -->
      <!-- from the Web.config file.                            -->
      <asp:sqldatasource id="CustomersSqlDataSource"  
        selectcommand="Select [CustomerID], [CompanyName], [Address], [City], [PostalCode], [Country] From [Customers]"
        updatecommand="Update Customers Set CompanyName=@CompanyName, Address=@Address, City=@City, PostalCode=@PostalCode, Country=@Country Where (CustomerID = @CustomerID)"
        connectionstring="<%$ ConnectionStrings:NorthWindConnectionString%>"
        runat="server">
      </asp:sqldatasource>
            
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

Remarks

Sometimes the user might enter an empty string for a field value when updating or inserting records. Use the ConvertEmptyStringToNull property to specify whether an empty string value is automatically converted to null when the data field is updated in the data source.

Note

By default, a BoundField object displays null values as empty strings. To display a different value, set the NullDisplayText property.

Applies to

See also