Linq to XML - Check for null element while parsing for DateTime

Question

Let's say I have the following XML:

<Account>
        <AccountExpirationDate>6/1/2009</AccountExpirationDate>
</Account>

I want to use LINQ to XML to parse this into an object I'll call Account:

public class Account {
    public DateTime? AccountExpirationDate { get; set; }
}

This is the C# code I've tried, but it won't let me use null:

var accountSettings = 
  from settings in templateXML.Descendants("Account")
  select new Account {
      AccountExpirationDate =   
         string.IsNullOrEmpty(settings.Element("AccountExpirationDate").Value) 
         ? DateTime.Parse(settings.Element("AccountExpirationDate").Value) 
         : null
  };

Is there a way for me to only assign AccountExpiration a date if the element exists in the XML? In my business logic it is acceptable for the value to be null. Thanks!

Answer 1

var accountSettings =
  from settings in templateXML.Descendants("Account")
  select new Account {
    AccountExpirationDate = 
      string.IsNullOrEmpty((string)settings.Element("AccountExpirationDate")) 
            ? (DateTime?)null
            : DateTime.Parse(settings.Element("AccountExpirationDate").Value) 
  };

Answer 2

Try:

var accountSettings = from settings in templateXML.Descendants("Account")
      where settings.Element("AccountExpriationDate") != null
      && !String.IsNullOrEmpty(settings.Element("AccountExpriationDate").Value)
      select new Account 
                  {
       AccountExpirationDate = DateTime.Parse(settings.Element("AccountExpirationDate").Value)
      };

Answer 3

You can just use:

from settings in templateXML.Descendants("Account")
let el = settings.Element("AccountExpirationDate")
let el2 = (el == null || string.IsNullOrEmpty(el.Value)) ? null : el
select new Account {
    AccountExpirationDate = (DateTime?)el2
};

there is a conversion operator that works this magic using standard xml datetime formatting, and which returns null if the element doesn't exist (note I don't read .Value).