Checking if an object is null in C#

Question

I would like to prevent further processing on an object if it is null.

In the following code I check if the object is null by either:

if (!data.Equal         


        

Answer 1

As of C# 8 you can use the 'empty' property pattern (with pattern matching) to ensure an object is not null:

if (obj is { })
{
    // 'obj' is not null here
}

This approach means "if the object references an instance of something" (i.e. it's not null).

You can think of this as the opposite of: if (obj is null).... which will return true when the object does not reference an instance of something.

For more info on patterns in C# 8.0 read here.