Nullabilityatastic

[Keith Barrow]

Firstly, -10 points for using nulls on a green field development in my book. Then I found these fields at the top of the class:

internal class BarHelper : FooHelper
{
//....
/* --------------------------------------
* Nullable value types
* -------------------------------------*/
decimal? _decimalNull = null;
short? _shortNull = null;
int? _intNull = null;
bool? _boolNull = null;
DateTime? _dateTimeNull = null;
//....
}

What are these for I wondered? A find reference on _decimalNull yeilds:

_bazTableAdapter.InsertRow(
cashbackAmount != null ? cashbackAmount.ValueAsDecimal : _decimalNull,
cashbackAmount != null ? cashbackAmount.CurrencyAsShort : _shortNull,
billAmount != null ? billAmount.ValueAsDecimal : _decimalNull,
billAmount != null ? billAmount.CurrencyAsShort : _shortNull,
billAmount != null ? billAmount.ConversionRateAsDecimal : _decimalNull);

It's all just wrong (including the DataSets and Table adapters) and just makes me want to weep. Even just using cashbackAmount != null ? cashbackAmount.ValueAsDecimal : new Nullable<decimal>() would have been an improvement. On the plus side, as I'm being repeatedly told, we don't have time to do it properly.

CCC solved so far: 2 (including a Hard One!) 37!?!! - Randall, Clerks

[Jeroen De Dauw]

Awesome code. Can I use it in my application or is it licensed?

Jeroen De Dauw --- Forums ; Blog ; Wiki --- 70 72 6F 67 72 61 6D 6D 69 6E 67 20 34 20 6C 69 66 65!

[Ian Shlasko]

It'll cost you 20 IQ points per line, or 50 to put in a commercial product :)

Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in? Author of Guardians of Xen (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel)

[Don Kackman]

You could write a generic helper class for that.

static class TypedNull
{
public static T GetNull<T>()
{
return null as T;
}
}

billAmount != null ? billAmount.CurrencyAsShort : TypedNull.GetNull<short?>()

10 PRINT Software is hard. - D Knuth 20 GOTO 10

modified on Wednesday, December 16, 2009 4:49 PM

[Super Lloyd]

not quite their code! How about:

public static decimal? AsDecimal(this Foo f)
{
if (f == null)
return null;
return f.DecimalValue;
}

A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station.... _________________________________________________________ My programs never have bugs, they just develop random features.

[Jeremy Tierman]

you forgot the redundant else :)

[BillW33]

Nullable types have their uses; this should not be one of them! :sigh:

Just because the code works, it doesn't mean that it is good code.

[Camilo Sanchez]

you're missing the point, the post is not about Nullable types but Nullable people