While at a rather disappointing MSDN event yesterday, I came across one gem of C# 3.0 candy in the form of a null-coalescing operator. This is basically a short-cut for the oft seen:
string emailAddress = parsedValue != null ? parsedValue : “(Not provided)”;
OR
string emailAddress = String.Empty;
if (parsedValue != null) {
emailAddress = parsedValue;
}
else {
emailAddress = “(Not provided)”;
}
Using the Null-Coalescing Operator
These can now instead be re-written using the new null-coalescing operator as:string emailAddress = parsedValue ?? “(Not provided)”;
This can roughly be read as “Set emailAddress equal to parsedValue unless it is null, in which case set it to the literal (Not Provided)”.
(via Null-Coalescing Operator)
