Handling ExecuteScalar() when no results are returned

Question

I am using the following SQL query and the ExecuteScalar() method to fetch data from an Oracle database:

sql = \"select username from usermst wh         


        

Answer 1

If you either want the string or an empty string in case something is null, without anything can break:

using (var cmd = new OdbcCommand(cmdText, connection))
{
    var result = string.Empty;
    var scalar = cmd.ExecuteScalar();
    if (scalar != DBNull.Value) // Case where the DB value is null
    {
        result = Convert.ToString(scalar); // Case where the query doesn't return any rows. 
        // Note: Convert.ToString() returns an empty string if the object is null. 
        //       It doesn't break, like scalar.ToString() would have.
    }
    return result;
}