General Performance Tip: Null Coalescing Assignment

C# 8 introduced a novel method for performing null coalescing assignments, as illustrated below.

DataTable table = null;
var testTable = new DataTable();

table ??= testTable;

Before C# 8, the code for this operation appeared as follows.

DataTable table = null;
var testTable = new DataTable();

if (table == null)
{
     testTable = table;
}

Benchmark Results

Let’s examine the performance of various approaches to coding null coalescing. Previously, the performance difference between these two methods for coding null coalescing was negligible. However, as evident from these results, in .NET 8, utilizing the traditional approach for null checking proves to be slightly more performant.

Pick up any books by David McCarter by going to Amazon.com: http://bit.ly/RockYourCodeBooks

If you liked this article, please buy David a cup of Coffee by going here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dotnetdave

© The information in this article is copywritten and cannot be preproduced in any way without express permission from David McCarter.