Is there a more concise way of writing
string aString = someObj == null ? null : someObj.ToString();
i.e. if someObj is a null reference then return a null string, otherwise call ToString() on the object and return that?
Convert.ToString() doesn't help because it returns String.Empty(); I'm passing the result to an XML serializer and I want there to be no element if the object is null, not an empty one.
Your code is pretty simple. If you wish to reduce the amount of code because you must write the same fragment a lot of times, you could put the code into an extension method:
static class SomeObjExtensions {
public static string ToStringWithNull(this object someObj) {
return someObj == null ? null : someObj.ToString();
}
}
ToStringOrNull conveys the meaning better?There is no such C# feature but probably it will be and can be called monadic null checking with ?. syntax, as described in probable C# 6.0 features article:
string aString = someObj?.ToString();
You could create an extension method that describes the action,
public static class ObjectExtensions
{
public static string ToStringOrNull(this object o)
{
return o == null ? null : o.ToString();
}
}
And use it as,
var aString = o.ToStringOrNull();
if(someObject == null) {
return null;
} else {
return someObject.ToString();
}
Yours is concise as it can get.
