Cannot assign null to anonymous property of type array

Question

I have any array of (Pilot) objects with a (Hanger) property, which may be null, which itself has a (List) property. For test

Answer 1

You have to use a typed null:

(List)null

Or

(Plane[])null

Otherwise the compiler has no idea what type you want the anonymous type's member to be.

Update As @AakashM has rightly pointed out - this solves your problem of assigning a null to an anonymous member - but doesn't actually compile - and if it did it wouldn't allow you to refer to these members.

A fix would be to do this (unfortunately both the null and the anonymous Planes array will need casting:

var expected = new[] {
  new { 
          PilotName = "Higgins", 
          Planes = (IEnumerable)null
      },
  new {
          PilotName = "Higgins", 
          Planes = (IEnumerable)new [] {
                              new { PlaneName = "B-52" },
                              new { PlaneName = "F-14" } 
                          }
      }
};

So use IEnumerable as the member type. You could also use IEnumerable