Why does setting a DataSet row value to Nothing initialize it to the data type minvalue?

Question

When setting a DataSet row column to Nothing, like row.Date = Nothing, why does it initialize it to the data type minvalue? In this case a date, that gets set to 0000-01-01. The column is set to allow null etc., and if I don't set the row to anything at all, it will leave the column empty. So why does Nothing act this way?

In C# I would've set it to DbNull, I guess, but I'm a tad green on VB.NET - as you might be able to tell. :)

Answer 1

Hps is correct that you should use DBNull.Value to assign a NULL value to a database column.

  row.Date = DBNull.Value

The reason you see the a default value being set is that the keyword Nothing in VB.NET is comparable to default(T) in C#, not C#'s null keyword.

Answer 2

I think you will be able to set DBNull in VB.Net as well something like

table.Rows(0)(0) = System.DBNull.Value

or row.Date = System.DBNull.Value

For assigning the "Nothing", you will need to have Nullable Type