?. and ?[] null-conditional operators (C# Reference)

  • 2 minutes to read
  • Contributors

Tests the value of the left-hand operand for null before performing a member access (?.) or index (?[]) operation; returns null if the left-hand operand evaluates to null.

These operators help you write less code to handle null checks, especially for descending into data structures.

int? length = customers?.Length; // null if customers is null
Customer first = customers?[0];  // null if customers is null
int? count = customers?[0]?.Orders?.Count();  // null if customers, the first customer, or Orders is null

The null-conditional operators are short-circuiting. If one operation in a chain of conditional member access and index operations returns null, the rest of the chain’s execution stops. In the following example, E doesn't execute if A, B, or C evaluates to null.

A?.B?.C?.Do(E);
A?.B?.C?[E];

Another use for the null-conditional member access is invoking delegates in a thread-safe way with much less code. The old way requires code like the following:

var handler = this.PropertyChanged;
if (handler != null)
    handler(…);

The new way is much simpler:

PropertyChanged?.Invoke(…)

The new way is thread-safe because the compiler generates code to evaluate PropertyChanged one time only, keeping the result in a temporary variable. You need to explicitly call the Invoke method because there is no null-conditional delegate invocation syntax PropertyChanged?(e).

Language specifications

For more information, see Null-conditional operator in the C# Language Specification. The language specification is the definitive source for C# syntax and usage.

See also