Question

When I retrieve any Scalar value from the database, I usually write code like this for nullable fields.

cmd.ExecuteScalar() == DBNull.Value ? 0 : (int)cmd.ExecuteScalar() 

But I don’t like it because it executes the Executescalar statement twice. It’s an extra trip to the server for my website and in favor of performance I don’t want to do this.

Is there any way I can get rid of this extra ExecuteScalar()?

Answer 1

Write yourself an extension method for the sql command.

public static T ExecuteNullableScalar<T>(this SqlCommand cmd)     where T : struct {     var result = cmd.ExecuteScalar();     if (result == DBNull.Value) return default(T);     return (T)result; } 

Usage becomes:

int value = cmd.ExecuteNullableScalar<int>();