Bootstrap Datepicker: Cannot implicitly convert type 'System.DateTime?' to 'System.DateTime'. An explicit conversion exists (are you missing a cast?)

Question

I am a newbie here. I have gone through similar questions here but none of them helped. I have the following in my ViewModel:

public DateTime FromD         


        

Answer 1

The issue is that your data model has non-nullable properties for FromDate and ToDate, but the view model has equivalent nullable properties.

You cannot explicitely convert a DateTime? to a DateTime because the value may be null.

If your view model properties are decorated with the [Required] attribute and you have checked ModelState.Isvalid before mapping (i.e. you know the property has a value), then you can use

history.FromDate = locationsViewModel.FromDate.Value;

If not, then the property could be null, in which case you need to use

history.FromDate = locationsViewModel.FromDate.GetValueOrDefault();

which will set the data model value to 1/1/0001 (the default value fro DateTime)