Receiving System Error When Retrieving Database Record With Null Value

I have some VB.NET code to retrieve data from an SQL Server database and display it.  The code is as follows: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

sw_calendar = calendarAdapter.GetEventByID(cid)

If sw_calendar.Rows.Count > 0 Then


lblStartDateText.Text = sw_calendar(0).eventStartDate

lblEndDateText.Text = sw_calendar(0).eventEndDate

lblTitleText.Text = sw_calendar(0).title

lblLocationText.Text = sw_calendar(0).location

lblDescriptionText.Text = sw_calendar(0).description

Else


lblStartDateText.Text = "*** Not Found ***"

lblEndDateText.Text = "*** Not Found ***"

lblTitleText.Text = "*** Not Found ***"

lblLocationText.Text = "*** Not Found ***"

lblDescriptionText.Text = "*** Not Found ***"

End If

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If all of the fields in the database has values, everything works ok.  However, if the title, location or description fields have a null value, I receive the following error message:

Unable to cast object of type 'System.DBNull' to type 'System.String'.

I've tried a bunch of different things such as:

Adding ".ToString" to the database field,
Seeing if the value is null:  If  sw_calendar(0).description = system.DBnull.value...

...but either I get syntax errors in the code, or if the syntax is ok, I still get the above error message.

Can anyone help me with the code required to trap the null within the code example I've provided?  I'm sure there are other, and better, ways to code this, but for now I'd really like to get it working as is, and then optimize the code once the application is working (...can you tell I have a tight deadline )

 

Thanks,

Brad