Umbraco True/False custom property value parsing issue

Question

dVery confusing on how Umbraco did this, and I'm looking for some sort of explanation if possible. I'm using Umbraco 7. I have a custom property on a doc type that is a True/False (basically a check box).

I'm receiving an error when attempting to parse the GetPropertyValue, object not reference to an object, which is the True/False checkbox.

I do NOT get the error when parsing the 1 INTO an object.

Code:

var topics = topicDocType.Select(x => new ForumModel
             {
                   Topic = x.Name,
                   TopicId = x.Id,
/*no error*/       IsClosedForQuestions = x.GetPropertyValue("closedQuestions") == (object)1 ? true : false,
                   Questions = x.Descendants().Where(y => y.DocumentTypeAlias.Equals("Question")).Select(y => new Question
                   {
                        QuestionName = y.GetPropertyValue("question").ToString(),
                        QuestionId = y.Id,
                        QuestionDateTime = y.CreateDate,
                        AskedBy = y.GetPropertyValue("askedBy").ToString(),
   /*no error*/         IsClosedForPosts = y.GetPropertyValue("closedPosts") == (object)1 ? true : false,
                        Posts = y.Descendants().Where(z => z.DocumentTypeAlias.Equals("Post")).Select(z => new Post
                    .... more code here

This doesn't work, and I do not get why:

var topics = topicDocType.Select(x => new ForumModel
             {
                   Topic = x.Name,
                   TopicId = x.Id,
/*doesn't work*/   IsClosedForQuestions = int.Parse(x.GetPropertyValue("closedQuestions").ToString()) == 1 ? true : false,
                    .... more code here

This doesn't work either:

var topics = topicDocType.Select(x => new ForumModel
             {
                   Topic = x.Name,
                   TopicId = x.Id,
/*doesn't work*/   IsClosedForQuestions = x.GetPropertyValue("closedQuestions").ToString() == "1" ? true : false,
                    .... more code here

If I create a test variable

var test = new ContentService().GetById(2269).GetValue("closedQuestions");

The value of test is 0, b/c the check box isn't checked. If I check it, run it again, the value is 1.

This could just be a C# question that perhaps I knew nothing about, and nothing really to do w/ Umbraco, but I know if I .ToString() an object and attempt to check if the value is equal to another string or not, it works.

Appreciate it.

---

EDIT:

After reading what Umbraco saves true/false as an int. True/False built-in-prop

True/False is a simple checkbox which saves either 0 or 1, depending on the checkbox being checked or not.

I also looked up how to parse correctly from an object(int) Better way to cast object int

However, this is still not working

IsClosedForQuestions = (int)x.GetPropertyValue("closedQuestions") == 1 ? true : false,

---

EDIT 2:

This DOES work, with retrieving the correct value. Any answers as to why?

IsClosedForQuestions = x.GetPropertyValue<int>("closedQuestions") == 1 ? true : false,

---

To show you that it's not null:

After change to int.Parse(....).ToString()) == 1

Answer 1

It seems that x.GetPropertyValue("closedQuestions") is returning null in some cases (or maybe an int? with a null value), which is why you're getting that error when trying to call ToString() on it. If x.GetPropertyValue<int>("closedQuestions") works for you then that's great, but I wanted to point out one thing:

You should not compare value-types (like int) by casting them to object and using ==. Casting to object will box the value type and use referential equality which will fail:

object o1 = 1;
object o2 = 1;
Console.WriteLine(o1 == o2);  // will print `false`

You could instead use object.Equals():

IsClosedForQuestions = object.Equals(x.GetPropertyValue("closedQuestions"),1)