SQL Data Reader - handling Null column values

Question

I\'m using a SQLdatareader to build POCOs from a database. The code works except when it encounters a null value in the database. For example, if the FirstName column in the

Answer 1

neat one-liner:

    while (dataReader.Read())
{
    employee.FirstName = (!dataReader.IsDBNull(dataReader.GetOrdinal("FirstName"))) ? dataReader["FirstName"].ToString() : "";
}