asked on

Insert &nbsp or " " instead of DbNull when field left blank in gridview?

I have a Gridview that does updating and when I leave a field blank it inserts a null value into the database instead of "". In my case the airline name is optional so if the user leaves it blank i want it to insert "" instead of sql server showing <i>null</i>.

I've been playing around but this is only as far as I have gotten... I think I'm heading in the right direction, any ideas?

protected void grdAircraft_RowUpdating(object sender, GridViewUpdateEventArgs e)
{
foreach (DictionaryEntry entry in e.NewValues)
{
//if (e.NewValues[entry.Value] == null) { e.NewValues[entry.Value] = ""; }
}
}

----- OR -----

Could I change my SQL query so it could work with nulls?

SELECT aircraftID, aircraftManu + ' ' + aircraftName + ' ' + aircraftNumber AS aName FROM aircraft ORDER BY aName
I'm binding a dropdownlist to this query but when aircraftName(which is the field I don't want null) is null, all rows with that null value don't show up in my results. Could I change the SQL query to have it show up or do I need go attack it with the method above so I can get this to work?

Thanks

Reza Rad

use this query istead of your query:
------
SELECT aircraftID, aircraftManu + ' ' + aircraftName + ' ' + aircraftNumber AS aName FROM aircraft ORDER BY aName
where aircraftName is not null
union
SELECT aircraftID, aircraftManu + ' ' + aircraftNumber AS aName FROM aircraft ORDER BY aName
where artifactName is null

------

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Chirag1211

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

charlestonlaw

ASKER

Is there any way to use the + in SQL Server 2005? I'm getting an error with them.

charlestonlaw

ASKER

This is the error:
Error in list of function arguments: '+' not recognized.
Unable to parse query text.

charlestonlaw

ASKER

Okay it's late... I know the + works just wondering why your query is giving me an error Chirag...

Thanks!

charlestonlaw

ASKER

SELECT aircraftID, aircraftManu + ' ' + ISNULL(aircraftName, ' ') + ' ' + aircraftNumber AS aName FROM aircraft ORDER BY aName

the code above works..

Thanks!

Reza Rad

it is CHIRAG query:

SELECT 'aircraftID', 'aircraftManu' + IsNUll('aircraftName',' ') as aircraftName , 'aircraftNumber' AS aName --FROM aircraft ORDER BY aName

must replaced + with ,
probebly chirag right it fast if not actually he found this

Insert &amp;nbsp or &quot; &quot; instead of DbNull when field left blank in gridview?

Insert &nbsp or " " instead of DbNull when field left blank in gridview?