Looping through array and assemble a string

Question

public ActionResult Create(RecurringTask recurringTask, FormCollection collection, ICollection<string> dayOfTheWeek)

I am trying to loop through the dayOfTheWeek (which is a group of checkboxes) and I am trying to find out which one is true so than I can use that to assemble a string ex:Monday, Tuesday, etc.

I am just having trouble finding a way of looping through my collection to do it. I keep getting can't apply == to of type string to bool error.

var days = dayOfTheWeek.ToString();
                    foreach (string day in dayOfTheWeek)
                    {
                        if(day == true)
                        {

                        }
                    }
                    recurringTask.DaysOfTheWeek = days;

This is what I am thinking on how to do it. But I imagine someone out there has a way better idea than I do. The day == true gives me that string to bool error and its obvious to why its happening, I just don't know how to get around it.

My view is this:

<input type="checkbox" name="dayOfTheWeek" value="Monday" />
<input type="checkbox" name="dayOfTheWeek" value="Tuesday" />
<input type="checkbox" name="dayOfTheWeek" value="Wednesday" />
<input type="checkbox" name="dayOfTheWeek" value="Thursday" />
<input type="checkbox" name="dayOfTheWeek" value="Friday" />
<input type="checkbox" name="dayOfTheWeek" value="Saturday" />
<input type="checkbox" name="dayOfTheWeek" value="Sunday" />

Are you checking the checkbox's Caption property, or its Checked property? My guess is you aren't checking the Checked property, because if you do if(MyCheckbox.Checked) that works fine. — qJake
– qJake, Commented Sep 12, 2011 at 19:49

Darin Dimitrov · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-12 20:11:29Z

public ActionResult Create(RecurringTask recurringTask, FormCollection collection, ICollection dayOfTheWeek)

Sorry to say it but that's probably one of the worst action signatures I have ever seen. A mixture of a domain model, a FormCollection and some ICollection<string>.

Use view models, strongly typed views and editor templates (that's probably the 10^4th time I am writing this sentence on StackOverflow in response to questions in the asp.net-mvc tag)! They will make your life so much easier. So a list of days and a corresponding boolean property to indicate whether this day is selected:

public class MyViewModel
{
    public IEnumerable<DayOfWeekViewModel> DaysOfWeek { get; set; }

    ... put any other properties that you consider useful for this view
}

public class DayOfWeekViewModel
{
    public string DayOfWeek { get; set; }
    public bool IsSelected { get; set; }
}

then a controller:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        var model = new MyViewModel
        {
            DaysOfWeek = CultureInfo
                .CurrentCulture
                .DateTimeFormat
                .DayNames
                .Select(x => new DayOfWeekViewModel
                {
                    DayOfWeek = x,
                })
        };
        return View(model);
    }

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(MyViewModel model)
    {
        // model.DaysOfWeek will contain all you need here
        // TODO: do some processing
        // here you can loop through model.DaysOfWeek to identify which 
        // days have been selected and take respective actions
        // ...

        // once you have finished processing you could redirect
        return RedirectToAction("success");
    }
}

then a corresponding view:

@model MyViewModel

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
    ... you could put any other fields from your view model that
        will be used by this form here

    @Html.EditorFor(x => x.DaysOfWeek)
    <input type="submit" value="OK" />
}

and the corresponding editor template (~/Views/Home/EditorTemplates/DayOfWeekViewModel.cshtml):

@model DayOfWeekViewModel

<div>
    @Html.CheckBoxFor(x => x.IsSelected) @Html.DisplayFor(x => x.DayOfWeek)
    @Html.HiddenFor(x => x.DayOfWeek)
</div>

Thanks buddy, I'm new to all of this. Getting stuff like this really helps me out

skaz · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-12 19:56:37Z

2

The error message is revealing. You are trying to compare a string day to true or false. What does it mean for a string to be true or false?

You really want to see if the checkboxes are checked. You claim that dayOfTheWeek is a group of CheckBoxes, but you are calling ToString() on it, which would convert it to a list of strings. What is the code before var days = dayOfTheWeek.ToString(); Where are you declaring dayOfTheWeek?

Once you really have a List<Checkbox>, you really want to iterate through that list to see if each element is checked.

foreach(CheckBox cb in dayOfTheWeek)
{
    if(cb.Checked)
    {
      // Logic
    }
}

answered Sep 12, 2011 at 19:56

skaz

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3 Comments

Peter Over a year ago

I don't think this works in ASP.NET MVC because there usually is no CheckBox object.

Samjus Over a year ago

The reason why I am calling a ToString on it is because I wan't to assemble a string after I find out if the checkbox is true/false and than save it as a string

Darin Dimitrov Over a year ago

List<Checkbox>? -1. That's ASP.NET MVC, not classic WebForms.

Peter · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-12 19:58:03Z

2

If you named your checkboxes "dayOfTheWeek", ICollection<string> dayOfTheWeek only contains the selected checkboxes.

So you could just take this list as "result", but I would encourage you to filter the list of days with a list of valid values to prevent malicious attacks.

answered Sep 12, 2011 at 19:58

Peter

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