The ?? Operator

Today was my first brush with the ?? operator and was pleasantly surprised by what it can do.

string sString1 = null;
string sString2 = "Hi";
string value = "";

// We would normally it this way
value = sString1 != null ? sString1 : sString2;

// Using ?? operator also called as coalescing
value = sString1 ?? sString2;

// In effect, it could be string
// val = a ?? b ?? c
// - The first non-null value is assigned to val
Response.Write(value);

Chaining ?? operator certainly makes it easier to perform a bunch of comparisons. When the ?? operator is chained, it assigns the value of the first non-null value.