Why do I get null instead of empty string when receiving POST request in from Razor View?

Question

I used to receive empty string when there was no value:

[HttpPost] public ActionResult Add(string text) {     // text is "" when there's no value provided by user } 

But now I'm passing a model

[HttpPost] public ActionResult Add(SomeModel Model) {     // model.Text is null when there's no value provided by user } 

So I have to use the ?? "" operator.

Why is this happening?

Answer 1

You can use the DisplayFormat attribute on the property of your model class:

[DisplayFormat(ConvertEmptyStringToNull = false)] 

Answer 2

The default model binding will create a new SomeModel for you. The default value for the string type is null since it's a reference type, so it's being set to null.

Is this a use case for the string.IsNullOrEmpty() method?