Making a Non-nullable value type nullable

Question

I have a simple struct that has limited use. The struct is created in a method that calls the data from the database. If there is no data returned from the database I want to be able to return a null, but Visual Studio complains, Cannot convert null to PackageName.StructName because it is a non-nullable value type.

How can I make it nullable?

Answer 1

You want to look into the Nullable<T> value type.

Answer 2

public struct Something
{
    //...
}

public static Something GetSomethingSomehow()
{
    Something? data = MaybeGetSomethingFrom(theDatabase);
    bool questionMarkMeansNullable = (data == null);
    return data ?? Something.DefaultValue;
}

Answer 3

The definition for a Nullable<T> struct is:

struct Nullable<T>
{
    public bool HasValue;
    public T Value;
}

It is created in this manner:

Nullable<PackageName.StructName> nullableStruct = new Nullable<PackageName.StructName>(params);

You can shortcut this mess by simply typing:

PackageName.StructName? nullableStruct  = new PackageName.StructName(params);

See: MSDN