Nullable types??

Dario Solera

They are good when you need a nullable type. Or, when you need compatibility with other platforms (while designing web services contracts, for example).

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Dave Kreskowiak

Bardy85 wrote:

Are they good or are they bad?

Neither. You use the correct tool for the job. Nullable types are just another tool in the toolbox. They serve a specific surpose. I don't qualify them as "good" or "bad".

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Douglas Troy

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modified on Monday, August 3, 2009 11:54 AM

Bardy85

True. What ever is best for the job. Simple. easy. For some reason when I code, I sit for hours wasting time, trying to find the best way foward. I know there are always a handfull of ways to accomplish a given task. I'm just trying to find the "best",most effecient,simplest solution. Maybe that it. Time. Every ms counts. Oh well. Think it's just monday driving me up the wall. Thanks anyway.

Joan M

Are you violating MS Access? :rolleyes:

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Joan M

Once I met one that was really, really bad... :rolleyes:

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Luc Pattyn

Ian Shlasko wrote:

bool areNullablesGood = ("the month".indexOf('R') >= 0);

That seems pretty close to the truth, as (1) months have at most one capital letter (never an R), (2) and "the month" has none. :)

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Dan Neely

MS access users are violated.

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Dan Neely

Don't use them when you don't have to. Every time you call an API expecting a non nullable value you'll have to do validation/conversion of your nullables.

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Shog9 0

Bad. But inconsistency is worse. Rather all types be nullable than just a subset...

Marc Clifton

Useless, because there's no mapping of a nullable type to an object with value DBNull.Value. Marc

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Judah Gabriel Himango

Given that the inventor of null calls it his "billion dollar mistake[^]", I think it's safe to say null references are bad. Or did you mean System.Nullable<T> in the .NET framework?

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Todd Smith

I usually use them in conjunction with a database and linq. But I don't see why they can't be used whenever the need arises. http://qconlondon.com/london-2009/presentation/Null+References:+The+Billion+Dollar+Mistake[^]

Todd Smith

Dario Solera

Well, all value types are non-nullable by default. You can make them nullable by wrapping them in a class. This is done automatically in .NET with the "?" operator.

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Shog9 0

Yeah... And boy is that not slick. :rolleyes: ("Yay!" i thought to myself, upon hearing of this for the first time... "Now i can write generic code that treats value types and reference types the same!" The gods of .NET proceeded to laugh heartily at my naivete...)

Oakman

John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:

Using my astounding precognitive powers, I predict that this will be a pointless thread.

I knew you were going to say that.

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PIEBALDconsult · modified on Monday, August 3, 2009 11:54 AM

Throw in something about dangling pointers.

PIEBALDconsult

Well, they're low in fat, sodium, and carbohydrates, and contain no alcohol; how can that be good? :confused:

realJSOP

You just ruined an otherwise pointless thread with serious commentary. Get with the program.

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Gary Wheeler

What about "raising" an exception?

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