How to handle null exception for column values returned from controller in webgrid?

Question

I am developing an MVC application in which the Webgrid is used to show table columns. I have One primary table named Item and secondary table named Category. I am trying to bind Item table's columns into Webgrid of a View but getting exception inside webgrid while binding foreign table(Category) column.

Microsoft.CSharp.RuntimeBinder.RuntimeBinderException

Model

public class ItemModel   
{  
    public long id { get; set; }
    public Nullable<long> category_id { get; set; }          
    public virtual Category Category { get; set; }   
}

Controller

List<ItemModel> lstItemModel = new List<ItemModel>();
List<Item> lstItemss = db.Items.ToList();
lstItemss.ForEach(x =>
{
    ItemModel stuModel = new ItemModel();
    stuModel.id= x.id;
    stuModel.Category = x.Category;
    lstItemModel.Add(stuModel);
});
return View(lstItemModel);

View inside webgrid I have

dataGrid.Column("Category", "Category", format: (Item) => string.IsNullOrEmpty(Item.Category.name)?string.Empty:Item.Category.name)

You can see in the view I am handing null exception but still it generates exception in view for Item.Category.name where as Item.id gets bind without any issue.

Thanks a lot

Answer 1

Thanks for the comments guys. Resolved the issue with this change that worked like charm.

Instead of this

string.IsNullOrEmpty(item.Category.name)

use this

(item.Category!= null)

so finally my view modified to

dataGrid.Column("Category", "Category", format: (Item) => (Item.Category==null)?string.Empty:Item.Category.name),