c# - ModelState.IsValid even when it should not be?

Question

I have API where I need to validate my user model. I choose an approach where I create different classes for Create/Edit actions to avoid mass-assignment and divide validation and actual model apart.

I don't know why but ModelState.IsValid returns true even when it should not. Am I doing something wrong?

Controller

public HttpResponseMessage Post(UserCreate user)
{
    if (ModelState.IsValid) // It's valid even when user = null
    {
        var newUser = new User
        {
            Username = user.Username,
            Password = user.Password,
            Name = user.Name
        };
        _db.Users.Add(newUser);
        _db.SaveChanges();
        return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.Created, new { newUser.Id, newUser.Username, newUser.Name });
    }
    return Request.CreateErrorResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, ModelState);
}

Model

public class UserCreate
{
    [Required]
    public string Username { get; set; }
    [Required]
    public string Password { get; set; }
    [Required]
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

Debug proof

Answer 1

The ModelState.IsValid internally checks the Values.All(modelState => modelState.Errors.Count == 0) expression.

Because there was no input the Values collection will be empty so ModelState.IsValid will be true.

So you need to explicitly handle this case with:

if (user != null && ModelState.IsValid)
{

}

Whether this is a good or bad design decision that if you validate nothing it will true is a different question...