how to check if a datareader is null or empty

Question

I have a datareader that return a lsit of records from a sql server database. I have a field in the database called "Additional". This field is 50% of the time emp

Answer 1

I haven't used DataReaders for 3+ years, so I wanted to confirm my memory and found this. Anyway, for anyone who happens upon this post like I did and wants a method to test IsDBNull using the column name instead of ordinal number, and you are using VS 2008+ (& .NET 3.5 I think), you can write an extension method so that you can pass the column name in:

public static class DataReaderExtensions
{
    public static bool IsDBNull( this IDataReader dataReader, string columnName )
    {
        return dataReader[columnName] == DBNull.Value;
    }
}

Kevin