Framework Design Guidelines: System.DBNull

Continuing in our weekly blog post series that highlights a few of the new additions to the Framework Design Guidelines 2^nd edition.. This content is found in the Nullable<T> section of Chapter 8: Usage Guidelines. Pablo helps us out with some subtle details that might really come in handy.

AVOID using System.DBNull. Prefer Nullable<T> instead.

PABLO CASTRO

Nullable<T> is in general a better representation of optional database values. One thing to consider though is that while Nullable<T> gives you the ability to represent null values, you don’t get database null operational semantics. Specifically, you don’t get null propagation through operators and functions. If you deeply care about the propagation semantics, consider sticking with DBNull.