Nullable types: better way to check for null or zero in c#

Question

I\'m working on a project where i find i\'m checking for the following in many, many places:

if(item.Rate == 0 || item.Rate == null) { }

mo

Answer 1

Although I quite like the accepted answer, I think that, for completeness, this option should be mentioned as well:

if (item.Rate.GetValueOrDefault() == 0) { }

This solution

• does not require an additional method,
• is faster than all the other options, since GetValueOrDefault is a single field read operation¹ and
• reads easier than ((item.Rate ?? 0) == 0) (this might be a matter of taste, though).

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¹ This should not influence your decision, though, since these kinds of micro-optimization are unlikely to make any difference.