How do I modify default form values generated by Razor View Engine in ASP.NET MVC?

Question

Razor view engine generated default values when a property is non-nullable . So how do I override these default value?

This is the form:

and this is the Model:

public class Movie
{
    public int Id { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [StringLength(255)]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [Display(Name="Created on")]
    public DateTime DateAdded { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [Display(Name = "Release Date")]
    public DateTime ReleaseDate { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [Range(1,20)]
    [Display(Name = "Number in Stock")]
    public int NumberInStock { get; set; }

    public Genre Genre { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [Display(Name="Genre")]
    public int GenreId { get; set; }

}

a snippet of one property from the view looks like this:

<div class="form-group">
    @Html.LabelFor(m => m.Movie.DateAdded)
    @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Movie.DateAdded, "{0:d MMM yyyy}", new { 
    @class = "form-control" })
    @Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.Movie.DateAdded)
</div>

Answer 1

If you're fine with your model always being populated with a specific default value (so, not only in this view but wherever you create a new instance of your model), then DefaultValueAttribute is probably the best solution.

eg

[Required]
[Display(Name = "Release Date")]
[DefaultValue(typeof(DateTime), "2019-01-01 00:00:00")]
public DateTime ReleaseDate { get; set; }

More info on DefaultValueAttribute in MSDN .