How to check for null before I use in linq?

Question

I have an list of objects that contains another object in it.

List<MyClass> myClass = new List<MyClass>();

I want to do some linq like this

myClass.Where(x => x.MyOtherObject.Name = "Name").ToList();

Thing is sometimes "MyOtherObject" is null. How do I check for this?

Answer 1

Simple, just add an AND clause to check if it's not null:

myClass.Where(x => x.MyOtherObject != null && x.MyOtherObject.Name = "Name").ToList();

Answer 2

As of C# 6, you can also use a null conditional operator ?.:

myClass.Where(x => x.MyOtherObject?.Name == "Name").ToList();

This will essentially resolve the Name property to null if MyOtherObject is null, which will fail the comparison with "Name".

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