Does User.Identity.Name ever throw?

Question

I notice User.Identity.Name appears to return the empty string when there is no user authenticated, rather than throwing a null reference exception.

It is valid to assume User.Identity.Name will never throw? Or should I be checking for null Identity before access.

Answer 1

I believe that the User object can be null if you haven't called

FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie(UserName, False)

or

FormsAuthentication.RedirectFromLoginPage(UserName, False)

It would probably be best to wrap in a try catch.