How to use if condition within a property setter

Question

If null value is assigned to SettingCode, I want the value to instead be set to "" or empty string.

[Required(AllowEmptyStrings = true)]
[StringLength(20)]
public string SettingCode { get; set; }

Did you even try anything? getters and setters are nothing but methods, so you can ady code there. However this assumes a body for each. Auto-properties hide that body away from you. See here for example: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6127290/c-sharp-add-validation-on-a-setter-method — MakePeaceGreatAgain, Dec 13 '19 at 14:16
You just need to manually implement the `set` and `get` methods. — crashmstr, Dec 13 '19 at 14:16
It´s even mentioned in the docs: https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/classes-and-structs/properties — MakePeaceGreatAgain, Dec 13 '19 at 14:18

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 13 '19 at 14:20

I guess you are using an OR/M to feed this property. So you have on the DB a nullable field, and you just don't want null in the code. This usually is not a good idea, since it will possibly lead to other problems while you persist back the data. However, if this is the case, and you want to do it, use a backing field:

string settingCode;

[Required(AllowEmptyStrings = true)]
[StringLength(20)]
public string SettingCode { get {return settingCode??"";} set { settingCode=value; } }

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 13 '19 at 14:18

2

This is as simple as declaring a local variable to hold the value and implementing some code in set:

private string _settingCode;

[Required(AllowEmptyStrings = true)]
[StringLength(20)]
public string SettingCode
{
    get { return _settingCode; }
    set
    {
        _settingCode = value == null ? string.Empty : value;
    }
}

answered Dec 13 '19 at 14:18

Martin

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this return null if no one is setting the value, so there is a risk on reading a null. – Felice Pollano Dec 16 '19 at 09:08

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 13 '19 at 14:19

I would use a property + field to achieve that instead of an auto-implemented property :

private string _settingCode;

[Required(AllowEmptyStrings = true)]
[StringLength(20)]
public string SettingCode
{
    get { return _settingCode; }
    set { _settingCode = value?? string.Empty; }
}

How to use if condition within a property setter

3 Answers3