Assign null to a SqlParameter

Question

The problem is that the ?: operator cannot determine the return type because you are either returning an int value or a DBNull type value, which are not compatible.

You can of course cast the instance of AgeIndex to be type object which would satisfy the ?: requirement.

You can use the ?? null-coalescing operator as follows

SqlParameter[] parameters = new SqlParameter[1];     
SqlParameter planIndexParameter = new SqlParameter("@AgeIndex", SqlDbType.Int);
planIndexParameter.Value = (object)AgeItem.AgeIndex ?? DBNull.Value;
parameters[0] = planIndexParameter; 

Here is a quote from the MSDN documentation for the ?: operator that explains the problem

Either the type of first_expression and second_expression must be the same, or an implicit conversion must exist from one type to the other.

The accepted answer suggests making use of a cast. However, most of the SQL types have a special Null field which can be used to avoid this cast.

For example, SqlInt32.Null "Represents a DBNull that can be assigned to this instance of the SqlInt32 class."

int? example = null;
object exampleCast = (object) example ?? DBNull.Value;
object exampleNoCast = example ?? SqlInt32.Null;

You need pass DBNull.Value as a null parameter within SQLCommand, unless a default value is specified within stored procedure (if you are using stored procedure). The best approach is to assign DBNull.Value for any missing parameter before query execution, and following foreach will do the job.

foreach (SqlParameter parameter in sqlCmd.Parameters)
{
    if (parameter.Value == null)
    {
        parameter.Value = DBNull.Value;
    }
}

Otherwise change this line:

planIndexParameter.Value = (AgeItem.AgeIndex== null) ? DBNull.Value : AgeItem.AgeIndex;

As follows:

if (AgeItem.AgeIndex== null)
    planIndexParameter.Value = DBNull.Value;
else
    planIndexParameter.Value = AgeItem.AgeIndex;

Because you can't use different type of values in conditional statement, as DBNull and int are different from each other. Hope this will help.

With one line of code, try this:

var piParameter = new SqlParameter("@AgeIndex", AgeItem.AgeIndex ?? (object)DBNull.Value);

Try this:

SqlParameter[] parameters = new SqlParameter[1];    
SqlParameter planIndexParameter = new SqlParameter("@AgeIndex", SqlDbType.Int);

planIndexParameter.IsNullable = true; // Add this line

planIndexParameter.Value = (AgeItem.AgeIndex== null) ? DBNull.Value : AgeItem.AgeIndex== ;
parameters[0] = planIndexParameter;

If you use the conditional(ternary) operator the compiler needs an implicit conversion between both types, otherwise you get an exception.

So you could fix it by casting one of both to System.Object:

planIndexParameter.Value = (AgeItem.AgeIndex== null) ? DBNull.Value : (object) AgeItem.AgeIndex;

But since the result is not really pretty and you always have to remember this casting, you could use such an extension method instead:

public static object GetDBNullOrValue<T>(this T val)
{
    bool isDbNull = true;
    Type t = typeof(T);

    if (Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(t) != null)
        isDbNull = EqualityComparer<T>.Default.Equals(default(T), val);
    else if (t.IsValueType)
        isDbNull = false;
    else
        isDbNull = val == null;

    return isDbNull ? DBNull.Value : (object) val;
}

Then you can use this concise code:

planIndexParameter.Value = AgeItem.AgeIndex.GetDBNullOrValue();

In my opinion the better way is to do this with the Parameters property of the SqlCommand class:

public static void AddCommandParameter(SqlCommand myCommand)
{
    myCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue(
        "@AgeIndex",
        (AgeItem.AgeIndex== null) ? DBNull.Value : AgeItem.AgeIndex);
}