As you know, a variable of a value type can never be null; it always contains the value type's value itself. In fact, this is why they call value types value types. Unfortunately, there are some scenarios in which this is a problem.
Examples:
Case 1: When designing a database, it's possible to define a column's data type to be a 32-bit integer that would map to the FCL's Int32 data type. But a column in a database can indicate that the value is nullable. That is, it is OK to have no value in the row's column. Working with database data by using the Microsoft .NET Framework can be quite difficult because in the common language runtime (CLR), thereis no way to represent an Int32 value as null.
Case 2: In Java, the java.util.Date class is a reference type, and therefore, a variable of this type can be set to null. However, in the CLR, a System.DateTime is a value type, and a DateTime variable can never be null. If an application written in Java wants to communicate a date/time to a Web service running the CLR, there is a problem if the Java application sends null because the CLR has no way to represent this and operate on it.
To improve this situation, Microsoft added the concept of nullable value types to the CLR. To understand how they work, we first need to look at the System.Nullable<T> class, which is defined in the FCL. Here is the logical representation of how the System.Nullable<T> type is defined:
using System;
namespace System
{
using System.Globalization;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
using System.Security;
// Warning, don't put System.Runtime.Serialization.On*Serializ*Attribute
// on this class without first fixing ObjectClone::InvokeVtsCallbacks
// Also, because we have special type system support that says a a boxed Nullable<T>
// can be used where a boxed<T> is use, Nullable<T> can not implement any intefaces
// at all (since T may not). Do NOT add any interfaces to Nullable!
//
[TypeDependencyAttribute("System.Collections.Generic.NullableComparer`1")]
[TypeDependencyAttribute("System.Collections.Generic.NullableEqualityComparer`1")]
[Serializable()]
public struct Nullable<T> where T : struct
{
private bool hasValue;
internal T value;
public Nullable(T value)
{
this.value = value;
this.hasValue = true;
}
public bool HasValue
{
get { return hasValue; }
}
public T Value
{
get
{
if (!HasValue)
{
ThrowHelper.ThrowInvalidOperationException(ExceptionResource.InvalidOperation_NoValue);
}
return value;
}
}
public T GetValueOrDefault()
{
return value;
}
public T GetValueOrDefault(T defaultValue)
{
return HasValue ? value : defaultValue;
}
public override bool Equals(object other)
{
if (!HasValue)
return other == null;
if (other == null)
return false;
return value.Equals(other);
}
public override int GetHashCode()
{
return HasValue ? value.GetHashCode() : 0;
}
public override string ToString()
{
return HasValue ? value.ToString() : "";
}
public static implicit operator Nullable<T>(T value)
{
return new Nullable<T>(value);
}
public static explicit operator T(Nullable<T> value)
{
return value.Value;
}
// The following already obsoleted methods were removed:
// public int CompareTo(object other)
// public int CompareTo(Nullable<T> other)
// public bool Equals(Nullable<T> other)
// public static Nullable<T> FromObject(object value)
// public object ToObject()
// public string ToString(string format)
// public string ToString(IFormatProvider provider)
// public string ToString(string format, IFormatProvider provider)
// The following newly obsoleted methods were removed:
// string IFormattable.ToString(string format, IFormatProvider provider)
// int IComparable.CompareTo(object other)
// int IComparable<Nullable<T>>.CompareTo(Nullable<T> other)
// bool IEquatable<Nullable<T>>.Equals(Nullable<T> other)
}
}
As you can see, this class encapsulates the notion of a value type than can also be null. Since Nullable<T> is itself a value type, instances of it are still fairly lightweight. That is, instances can still be on the stack, and an instance is the same size as the original value type plus the size of a Boolean field. Notice that Nullable's type parameter, T, is constrained to struct. This was done because reference type variables can already be null.
So now, if you want to use a nullable Int32 in your code, you can write something like this:
Nullable<Int32> x = 5;
Nullable<Int32> y = null;
Console.WriteLine("x: HasValue={0}, Value={1}",
x.HasValue, x.Value);
Console.WriteLine("y: HasValue={0} , Value={1}",
y.HasValue, y.GetValueOrDefault());
When I compile and run this code, I get the following output:
x: HasValue=True, Value=5
y: HasValue=False, Value=0
C#'s Null-Coalescing Operator
C# has an operator called the null-coalescing operator (??), which takes two operands. If the operand on the left is not null, the operand's value is returned. If the operand on the left is null, the value of the right operand is returned. The null-coalescing operator offers a very convenient way to set a variable's default value.
A cool feature of the null-coalescing operator is that it can be used with reference types as well as nullable value types. Here is some code that demonstrates the use of the null-coalescing operator:
private static void NullCoalescingOperator() {
Int32? b = null;
// The line below is equivalent to:
// x = (b.HasValue) ? b.Value : 123
Int32 x = b ?? 123;
Console.WriteLine(x); // "123"
}