C# Displaying a ViewBag based on ViewModel controller

Question

I have a ViewModel that displays the items in the cart CartItems and one that displays the total cost. My if statement that I currently have doesn't work, why is this and how do i go about fixing it? CartItems is a List. Im trying to make it so that if there is no items in the cart, the message CART EMPTY is displayed

    ShoppingCartViewModel viewModel = new ShoppingCartViewModel
    {
        CartItems = cart.GetCartItems(),
        CartTotal = cart.GetTotal()
    };


if (viewModel.CartItems == null)
{
    ViewBag.CartStatus = "CART EMPTY";
}
else
{
    ViewBag.CartStatus = "Cart Has item, proceed";
}

Answer 1

If your method always returns an empty collection you probably want to check against that instead of null:

if (viewModel.CartItems.Any())
{
    ViewBag.CartStatus = "CART EMPTY";
}
else
{
    ViewBag.CartStatus = "Cart Has item, proceed";
}

Also this ViewBag is just horrible. My eyes are bleeding every single time I see it. You've got a view model, why not just have a CartStatus tring property on it and update it accordingly?