How to use ternary operator in razor using a @Model (TimeSpan)?

Question

I am trying to use the ternary operator in this piece of code, where Model.FirstTechSupportAssigneeElapseTime is of type TimeSpan?:

<dt>Assigned In</dt>
<dd> 
@if (@Model.FirstTechSupportAssigneeElapseTime == null)
     { @:N/A } 
else 
     { @Model.FirstTechSupportAssigneeElapseTime } 
</dd>

I have tried to implement the the ternary operator but I am failing miserably, the @'s everywhere are confusing me. Is it possible to have a the ternary operator in this scenario?

Thank you.

Satiated

Does this answer your question? How to use ternary operator in razor (specifically on HTML attributes)? – Veilleux

Answer 1

Just keep in mind which scope you are in. Inside the if statement you do not need the @ because you are in c# scope. Inside of the conditional statement you are in razor scope, so you do need the @

<dt>Assigned In</dt>
<dd> 
@if (Model.FirstTechSupportAssigneeElapseTime == null)
{ 
    @:N/A 
} 
else 
{
    @Model.FirstTechSupportAssigneeElapseTime
} 
</dd>

This can also be done in using the ternary operator, assuming that elapsetime is a string (if it isn't there will be a conversion compilation error when the page loads)

<dt>Assigned In</dt>
<dd> 
@( Model.FirstTechSupportAssigneeElapseTime == null ? "N/A" : Model.FirstTechSupportAssigneeElapseTime.ToString() )
</dd>

Strategist

Actually ElapseTime is a TimeSpan and its complaining about this reason Operator ?? cannot be applied to TimeSpan and string. – Imperfective

@GuillermoSánchez - The ?? will probably not work well then, you can still probably do the ternary operator if you use .ToString() on the timespan (see my edit) – Strategist

It tells me "left hand of the ?? operator shoild be of reference or nullable time" which is weird because the EllapseTime declaration is like this: public TimeSpan? FirstTechSupportAssigneeElapseTime { get; private set; } – Imperfective

Great, the last suggetion worked @( Model.FirstTechSupportAssigneeElapseTime == null ? "N/A" : Model.FirstTechSupportAssigneeElapseTime.ToString() ), thank you very much – Imperfective

Answer 2

<dt>Assigned In</dt>
<dd> 
    @(
        Model.FirstTechSupportAssigneeElapseTime == null 
        ? "N/A" 
        : Model.FirstTechSupportAssigneeElapseTime.ToString()  //per @Guillermo Sánchez's comment, it seems that FirstTechSupportAssigneeElapseTime is of type TimeSpan
                                                               //therefore the `.ToString()` was added to ensure that all parts of the if statement return data of the same type.
    )  
</dd>

Goof

I believe you have to use () instead of {} to get your example to work. – Jelena

For some reason this solution is not working, the compilation error returns: Type of conditional expression cannot be determined because there is no implicit conversion between 'string' and 'System.TimeSpan, I have tried with {} and () as well. – Imperfective

Apologies; updated code with regular parentheses per @NickAlbrecht's comment. – Goof