Way to shorten/avoid cascaded null checks in if-statements

Question

I have this condition

if(Model.Bids != null && Model.Bids.Items != null && Model.Bids.Items.Count > 0)
{
  ...
}

Problem

Answer 1

For c# this two options achieve sort of what you want but I wouldn't put this in my software quickly. Also I doubt this gets more readable or better understandable. There is one other option but that requires you to refactor you Model class chain. If you implement a NullObject for the type in Bids and the type in Item you can do if(Model.Bids.Items.Count > 0) because all types will not be null but have an implementation that handles the Empty state (much like String.Empty)

helpers

/* take a func, wrap in a try/catch, invoke compare */
bool tc(Func<bool> comp )
{
    try
    {
        return comp.Invoke();
    }
    catch (Exception)
    {
        return false;
    }
}

/* helper for f */ 
T1 f1<T,T1>(T root, Func<T, T1> p1) where T:class 
{
    T1 res = default(T1);
    if (root != null)
    {
        res = p1.Invoke(root);
    }
    return res;
}

/*  take a chain of funcs and a comp if the last 
    in the chain is still not null call comp (expand if needed) */
bool f<T,T1,T2,TL>( T root, Func<T,T1> p1, Func<T1,T2> p2, Func<T2,TL> plast, 
        Func<TL, bool> comp) where T:class where T1:class where T2:class
{
    var allbutLast = f1(f1(root, p1), p2);
    return allbutLast != null && comp(plast.Invoke(allbutLast));
}

Usage

var m = new Model();
if (f(m, p => p.Bids, p => p.Items, p => p.Count, p => p > 0))
{
    Debug.WriteLine("f");
}
if (tc(() => m.Bids.Items.Count > 0))
{
    Debug.WriteLine("tc ");
}
if (m.Bids != null && m.Bids.Items != null && m.Bids.Items.Count > 0)
{
    Debug.WriteLine("plain");
}