C# – if condition with nullable

ccompiler-constructionnetnullable

There is a lot of syntax sugar with Nullable<T> like those:

int? parsed to Nullable<int>

int? x = null
   if (x != null) // Parsed to if (x.HasValue)

x = 56; // Parsed to x.Value = 56;

And more.

Why if condition with Nullable doesn't work?

if (x)
{}

It gets Complier error saying can't convert Nullable<bool> to bool.
Why it's not being parsed to if (x.HasValue && x.Value == true) or something similar?

It's the most obvious usage for Nullable<bool>

Best Answer

It's the most obvious usage for Nullable<bool>

Your "obvious" behaviour leads to many inobvious behaviours.

if(x)

is treated as false when x is null, then what should happen to

if(!x)

? !x is also null when x is null, and therefore will be treated as false also! Does it not seem strange that you cannot reverse the behaviour of a conditional with an inversion?

What about

if (x | !x)

Surely that should always be true, but if x is null then the whole expression is null, and therefore false.

It is better to avoid these inobvious situations by simply making them all illegal. C# is a "make the user say what they mean unambiguously" language.

I believe that VB has the behaviour you want. You might consider switching to VB if this is the sort of thing you like.

Related Solutions

C# – How to parse a string into a nullable int

int.TryParse is probably a tad easier:

public static int? ToNullableInt(this string s)
{
    int i;
    if (int.TryParse(s, out i)) return i;
    return null;
}

Edit @Glenn int.TryParse is "built into the framework". It and int.Parse are the way to parse strings to ints.

C# – How to check if an object is nullable

There are two types of nullable - Nullable<T> and reference-type.

Jon has corrected me that it is hard to get type if boxed, but you can with generics: - so how about below. This is actually testing type T, but using the obj parameter purely for generic type inference (to make it easy to call) - it would work almost identically without the obj param, though.

static bool IsNullable<T>(T obj)
{
    if (obj == null) return true; // obvious
    Type type = typeof(T);
    if (!type.IsValueType) return true; // ref-type
    if (Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(type) != null) return true; // Nullable<T>
    return false; // value-type
}

But this won't work so well if you have already boxed the value to an object variable.

Microsoft documentation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/nullable-types/how-to-identify-a-nullable-type

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – How to parse a string into a nullable int

C# – How to check if an object is nullable

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