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c#ternary

C# - A more efficient ternary operator

I was making a program in which I want to check if a string is equal to "", and if it isn't use it, but if it is, use the default value. I know I can do string != "" ? string : "default value", however, I feel like this is inefficient, as I keep typing out string. Of course, writing out string is no problem for me, but, if in another project, I have to reference a string with a long package name, it would be a little more annoying.

Solution

  • According to DavidG's option and helpful link, you could use this extension function. 

    public static string IfEmpty(this string str, string alternate)
{
    return str?.Length == 0 ? str : alternate;
}

    (This will return the alternate string even if the 'str' is null)

    And use as mystring.IfEmpty("something else")

    Source: What is the difference between String.Empty and "" (empty string)?.

    Also you don't need to reference a really long string.