C# Nullable to string

Question

I have a DateTime? variable, sometimes the value is null, how can I return an empty string \"\" when the value is null or

Answer 1

string date = myVariable.HasValue ? myVariable.Value.ToString() : string.Empty;

Answer 2

According to Microsoft's documentation:

The text representation of the value of the current Nullable object if the HasValue property is true, or an empty string ("") if the HasValue property is false.

Answer 3

Though many of these answers are correct, all of them are needlessly complex. The result of calling ToString on a nullable DateTime is already an empty string if the value is logically null. Just call ToString on your value; it will do exactly what you want.

Answer 4

You could write an extension method

public static string ToStringSafe(this DateTime? t) {
  return t.HasValue ? t.Value.ToString() : String.Empty;
}

...
var str = myVariable.ToStringSafe();

Answer 5

All you need to do is to just simply call .ToString(). It handles Nullable<T> object for null value.

Here is the source of .NET Framework for Nullable<T>.ToString():

public override string ToString() {
    return hasValue ? value.ToString() : "";
}