Linq To Xml Null Checking of attributes

Answer 1

In C# 6.0 you can use monadic Null-conditional operator ?. After applying it in your example it would look like this:

var books = from book in booksXml.Descendants("book")
            select new
            {
                Name = book.Attribute("name")?.Value ?? String.Empty,
                Price = Convert.ToInt32(book.Attribute("price")?.Value ?? "0"),
                Special = book.Attribute("special")?.Value ?? String.Empty
            };

You can read more here in part titled Null-conditional operators.