Null checking

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Extension methods are static methods which behave like instance methods. However, unlike what happens when calling an instance method on a null reference, when an extension method is called with a null reference, it does not throw a NullReferenceException. This can be quite useful in some scenarios.

For example, consider the following static class:

public static class StringExtensions
{
    public static string EmptyIfNull(this string text)
    {
        return text ?? String.Empty;
    }

    public static string NullIfEmpty(this string text)
    {
        return String.Empty == text ? null : text;
    }
}

string nullString = null;
string emptyString = nullString.EmptyIfNull();// will return ""
string anotherNullString = emptyString.NullIfEmpty(); // will return null

Live Demo on .NET Fiddle

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