How can an object be null and not null at the same time?

Question

So I have this bit of code, if I break point on the return statement the immediate window outputs the information below.

try
{
    await connection.OpenAsync();
    var obj = await cmd.ExecuteScalarAsync();
    return obj != null ? Int32.Parse(obj.ToString()) != 1 : false;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    Log.Error("An error has occurred checking a customer/product authorization.", ex);
    return false;
}
finally
{
    connection.Close();
}

Stored Procedure Here is the relevant parts of the stored procedure. @HasAuthTable and @IsAuthorized are of the type bit.

SELECT (CASE WHEN @HasAuthTable = 0 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) | @IsAuthorized AS IsAuthorized

Immediate Window

obj
0

obj == null
false

obj != null
false

obj == 0
error CS0019: Operator '==' cannot be applied to operands of type 'object' and 'int'

obj != 0
error CS0019: Operator '!=' cannot be applied to operands of type 'object' and 'int'

(int)obj == 0
true

(int)obj != 0
false

obj.GetType().FullName
"System.Int32"

obj.Equals(null)
false

!obj.Equals(null)
true

Object.ReferenceEquals(obj, null)
false

!Object.ReferenceEquals(obj, null)
false

I've tried Rebuilding the solution didn't change anything. I have also tried restarting Visual Studio. No luck. Is this intended behavior? It seems like a bug.

Altered Stored Procedure I tried changing the output of the stored procedure to match the following to see if it affects it in any way. The result is basically the same. static type of object with the expected dynamic type, both having values but still returning false for obj == null and obj != null.

SELECT CAST(((CASE WHEN @HasAuthTable = 0 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) | @IsAuthorized) AS BIT) AS IsAuthorized

Respective Immediate Window

obj
false

obj != null
false

obj == null
false

obj.GetType().FullName
"System.Boolean"

Answer 1

var obj = await cmd.ExecuteScalarAsync(); is doing Boxing.

Immediate Window displays incorrect value if 0 is boxed. It must be a bug in Immediate Window.

The picture is from Illustrated C# 2012 4th Edition by Daniel Solis.