Question

The MSDN article on String Basics shows this:

string str = 'hello'; string nullStr = null; string emptyStr = '';  string tempStr = str + nullStr; // tempStr = 'hello' bool b = (emptyStr == nullStr);// b = false; string newStr = emptyStr + nullStr; // creates a new empty string int len = nullStr.Length; // throws NullReferenceException 

Why doesn’t concatenating with null throw a null reference exception? Is it to make a programmer’s life easier, such that they don’t have to check for null before concatenation?

Answer 1

From MSDN:

In string concatenation operations, the C# compiler treats a null string the same as an empty string, but it does not convert the value of the original null string.

More information on the + binary operator:

The binary + operator performs string concatenation when one or both operands are of type string.

If an operand of string concatenation is null, an empty string is substituted. Otherwise, any non-string argument is converted to its string representation by invoking the virtual ToString method inherited from type object.

If ToString returns null, an empty string is substituted.