Non-Nullable String Initializes as Null

Question

I trying to understand why a non-nullable string initializes to null instead of an empty string. For example:

//Property of class foo
public string Address_N         


        

Answer 1

Since you are using properties to get the string values, another option is to return string.Empty if it is in fact null.

//Property of class foo
private string _address_Notes;
public string Address_Notes 
{ 
    get { return _address_Notes ?? string.Empty; } 
    set { _address_Notes = value; }
}

---

A much better solution would be to initialise the string to string.Empty (if that is your expected behaviour). You can do this in C# 6+ as follows:

public string Address_Notes { get; set; } = string.Empty;

This way it's a one off initialisation rather than a check on every request.