C# - 12 - Fun with nulls.

[C# 2.0]

Reference type variables can, by their very nature, be null. But what about value types? They can be 'made' nullable by adding the '?' qualifier … as in

Making something nullable assigns it two read-only properties: HasValue and Value … thus:

So what would have happened above if you hadn't tested? You'd have gotten an error because x might be null and z doesn't support nulls.

An alternative to testing HasValue is to use '??' (the null coalessor).

… in this example if x has a value then z will be given it, otherwise z will be set to 3.

One final trick: the null coalessor can be used with reference types too. Consider:

Simples.

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