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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-13T08:44:34+00:00

Can someone explain to me why in .NET I would write String.IsNullOrEmpty(str) instead of

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Can someone explain to me why in .NET I would write String.IsNullOrEmpty(str) instead of str.IsNullOrEmpty()? There must be a logical reason but I don’t know it.

It sounds like you guys are saying

  1. You can’t call methods from objects that are null in C#/.NET (I do it in C++, it just doesnt access any member vars)
  2. Extension methods didn’t exist in .NET 2.0
  3. Microsoft didn’t bother to update the standards and probably felt it was insignificant
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    If IsNullOrEmpty were an instance method, calling it on a null instance would throw a NullReferenceException, not return false like you’d want.

    It could be an extension method, but then it’d potentially be confusing — it’d look like an instance method, but wouldn’t act like one.

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