Using Conditional operator inside a string?

Question

How do I use a conditional operator inside a string?

Why is the value of this string missing TO_DATE( and ' the single quote? and what can I do to fix it?

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
//code...
sb.AppendLine("     '" + txtStatus.Text + "',");
sb.AppendLine("     TO_DATE(" + dtpEligDate.Value.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss") == "" ? "null" : dtpEligDate.Value.ToString() + "),");
sb.AppendLine("     '" + txtCoverageEndReason.Text == "" ? "null" : txtCoverageEndReason.Text + "',");
//code...

String value:

'',
7/19/2013 9:04:35 AM),
',

My understanding is that this is NOT caused by lack of escaping charecters, but because of the use of a conditional operator.

Thanks for the help!

Zbigniew · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-19 16:21:37Z

6

It's because of operator precedence, add () to your ternary operator and it will work:

sb.AppendLine("TO_DATE(" + 
    (dtpEligDate.Value.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss") == "" ? "null" : dtpEligDate.Value.ToString()) + 
"),");

Basicaly it will first concatenate strings (+) and then evaluate conditional statement (?:), but you expect it to be opposite. Parentheses will fix it.

As a side note: it'd be better to use parametrized queries.

answered Jul 19, 2013 at 16:21

Zbigniew

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