Question

I want to serialize a nullable bool simply by converting it to a string

public static string SerializeNullableBoolean(bool? b)
{
    if (b == null)
    {
        return "null or -1 or .."; // What to return here?
    }
    else
    {
        return b.ToString();
    }
}

What is the most appropriate string to serialize the null-value as?

Answer 1

Since bool.ToString() returns “True” or “False”, I would go with “Null”. I would also rewrite this as:

return b.HasValue ? b.ToString() : "Null";

Edit: I take that back. bool?.ToString() returns empty string, so I would decide based on what’s more convenient. If a person needs to read the output then “Null” is a better choice; if it only needs to be used in code then empty string is fine. If you go with empty string it is as simple as:

return b.ToString();