how to check if a datareader is null or empty

Question

I have a datareader that return a lsit of records from a sql server database. I have a field in the database called "Additional". This field is 50% of the time emp

Answer 1

if (myReader.HasRows) //The key Word is **.HasRows**

{

    ltlAdditional.Text = "Contains data";

}

else

{   

    ltlAdditional.Text = "Is null Or Empty";

}

Answer 2

I also use OleDbDataReader.IsDBNull()

if ( myReader.IsDBNull(colNum) ) { retrievedValue = ""; }
else { retrievedValue = myReader.GetString(colNum); }

Answer 3

In addition to the suggestions given, you can do this directly from your query like this -

SELECT ISNULL([Additional], -1) AS [Additional]

This way you can write the condition to check whether the field value is < 0 or >= 0.

Answer 4

This is the correct and tested solution

if (myReader.Read())
{

    ltlAdditional.Text = "Contains data";
}
else
{   
    ltlAdditional.Text = "Is null";
}

Answer 5

I also experiencing this kind of problem but mine, i'm using DbDataReader as my generic reader (for SQL, Oracle, OleDb, etc.). If using DataTable, DataTable has this method:

DataTable dt = new DataTable();
dt.Rows[0].Table.Columns.Contains("SampleColumn");

using this I can determine if that column is existing in the result set that my query has. I'm also looking if DbDataReader has this capability.

Answer 6

First of all, you probably want to check for a DBNull not a regular Null.

Or you could look at the IsDBNull method