Dealing with Nullable Types and IIf in VBNET

December 29th | 2009

Dealing with Nullable Types and IIf in VB.NET

Here’s a tip that might bite some C# developers getting their feet wet with VB.NET. In fact, I got bit by this one recently, and it didn’t help that it was knee deep in COM. Let’s examine this harmless looking C# statement:

int? someSpoon;
string helloValue = someSpoon.HasValue
    ? "The spoon is " + someSpoon.Value
    : "There is no spoon";

This is a pretty typical use of the ternary operator. If someSpoon has a value, then the helloValue is “The spoon is <value>”, if it doesn’t have a value, it is “There is no spoon”. This is a safe use because someSpoon.Value will not be evaluated unless the condition is true.

VB.NET does not have a built-in operator similar to this, however it does have a function called IIf. Its syntax is this:

Function IIf(ByVal expression As Boolean, _
    ByVal truePart As Object, _
    ByVal falsePart As Object)

We’d be tempted to write something like this with our VB.NET IIf:

Dim someSpoon As Integer?
IIf(someSpoon.HasValue, _
    "The spoon is " & someSpoon.Value, _
    "There is no spoon")

But wait! We just introduced a bug. Take a minute to figure it out.

Got it? OK let’s see if we agree. The problem is that as IIf is just a plain function, someSpoon.Value will always be evaluated. If you call .Value on a nullable type without a value, you’ll get an exception. This is because the Value must be resolved before it is passed into IIf. C# doesn’t exhibit this behavior because the true part is completely ignored.

So, what’s the fix?

You might be tempted to switch to an If/Else statement but I chose to write my own IIf using lambdas. It’s called SIIf—S is for safe—and it doesn’t exhibit this behavior. Instead of passing in the Value, we pass in a function that will be invoked to get the Value if it’s needed.

Here’s the source for it:

Public Function SIIf(Of T)(ByVal expression As Boolean, _
         ByVal trueExpression As Func(Of T), _
         ByVal falseExpression As Func(Of T))
    If expression Then
        Return trueExpression()
    End If
    Return falseExpression()
End Function

I also added generics—another annoyance to VB.NET developers who use Option Explicit. Here’s how it would be used:

Dim someSpoon As Integer? = Nothing
Dim result As String = SIIf(Of String)(someSpoon.HasValue, _
            Function() "The spoon is " & someSpoon.Value, _
            Function() "There is no spoon")

All we really have to do is remember to put Function() before the 2nd and 3rd parameters. This prevents our exception from happening because Value is only ever invoked if the expression is true by the lambda.

Update: As some of you have already pointed out, this functionality is built into the .NET Framework 3.5 using a three argument If statement, which I overlooked. I would recommend using this over my own solution if possible.

Kevin Jones is a Team Lead at Thycotic Software, an agile software services and product development company based in Washington DC. Secret Server is our flagship password management software product. On Twitter? Follow Kevin

Comments

• Other Developer Blogs

  • Alvin Ashcraft’s Morning Dew
  • The Morning Brew

• Recent Posts

  • Outlook Folder Macros for Getting Things Done
  • Thinking in Regex A Csharp Regex Tutorial with Examples
  • Quirks in .NET – Part 2 Marshalling Booleans
  • Quirks in .NET – Part 1 Call vs Callvirt
  • FsUnit – Test Fsharp with Fsharp
  • The Benefits of Pair Programming
  • Managed code isnt always the best solution
  • Debugger Friend or Foe
  • Dealing with Nullable Types and IIf in VBNET
  • Cool Things to Do with Dynamics in dotNET 4
  • Are Extension Methods a Code Smell
  • An Overview of C# 4.0
  • Some Love for VB.NET 10 Too
  • The Danger of Single Responsibility in Programming Continued
  • Want to join a team of top notch developers in the DC Metro area?