How can I make my string property nullable?

Question

I want to make the Middle Name (CMName) of person optional. I have been using C#.net code first approach. For integer data type its easy just by using ? operator to make in nullable. I am looking for a way to make my sting variable nullable. I tried to search but could not find the way to make it nullable.

Below is my code. Please suggest me how to make it nullable.

public class ChildrenInfo {     [Key]     public int ChidrenID { get; set; }      [Required]     [Display(Name ="First Name")]     [StringLength(50,ErrorMessage ="First Name cannot exceed more than 50 characters")]     [RegularExpression(@"^[A-Z]+[a-z]*$",ErrorMessage ="Name cannot have special character,numbers or space")]     [Column("FName")]     public string CFName { get; set; }      [Display(Name ="Middle Name")]     [RegularExpression(@"^[A-Z]+[a-z]*$",ErrorMessage ="Middle Name cannot have special character,numbers or space")]     [StringLength(35,ErrorMessage ="Middle Name cannot have more than 35 characters")]     [Column("MName")]     public string CMName { get; set; } }    

Answer 1

String is a reference type and always nullable, you don't need to do anything special. Specifying that a type is nullable is necessary only for value types.

Answer 2

C# 8.0 is published now so you can make reference types nullable too. For this you have to add

#nullable enable 

Feature over your namespace. It is detailed here

For example something like this will work:

#nullable enable namespace TestCSharpEight {   public class Developer   {     public string FullName { get; set; }     public string UserName { get; set; }      public Developer(string fullName)     {         FullName = fullName;         UserName = null;     } }} 

Also you can have a look this nice article from John Skeet that explains details.