Asp.net MVC Controller to accept value or null

Question

I have a controller like this:

public ActionResult mycontroller(int status, DateTime start, DateTime end) 
{
   ...stuff
}

And I call it like this:

http://localhost:22200/mycontroller?status=1&start=18/03/2015&end=18/04/2015

However, half the time I need to call it like this:

http://localhost:22200/mycontroller?status=1

I would like to use same controller for both calls.

Is there way to change the controller to accept or not the parameters?

Ps: I don't want to have 2 controllers or a url like this

http://localhost:22200/mycontroller?status=1&start=null&end=null

Any help out there? Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

Make start and end optional/nullable parameters as illustrated below.

ActionResult Action(int status, DateTime? start = null, DateTime? end = null)

The optional parameters will allow for the action to be called regardless of whether or not the start and end query string arguments are specified. When omitted, the default value null will be used. Thus both of the following URLs will be valid:

http://localhost:22200/mycontroller?status=1

http://localhost:22200/mycontroller?status=1&start=18/03/2015&end=18/04/2015