SqlCommand.ExecuteScalar avoid null

Question

The thing is I have this code

var ojv = xmd.ExecuteScalar().ToString();
        if (ojv != null)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(ojv);
            var up = CreateQuery();
            up.CommandText = "UPDATE characters SET items=@items WHERE accId=@accId AND charId=@charId;";
            up.Parameters.AddWithValue("@items", ojv);
            up.Parameters.AddWithValue("@accId", acc.AccountId);
            up.Parameters.AddWithValue("@charId", charId);
            up.ExecuteNonQuery();
            var del = CreateQuery();
            del.CommandText = "DELETE FROM shop WHERE accId=@accId AND chrId=@chrId;";
            del.Parameters.AddWithValue("@accId", acc.AccountId);
            del.Parameters.AddWithValue("@chrId", charId);
            del.ExecuteNonQuery();
        }

But if theres no ovj it return null, I need to avoid that, is there any way so the ExecuteScalar wont return null if no value is found?

Answer 1

Just check for null before you call ToString().

    var result = xmd.ExecuteScalar();
        if (result != null)
        {
            var ojv = result.ToString();
            Console.WriteLine(ojv);
            var up = CreateQuery();
            up.CommandText = "UPDATE characters SET items=@items WHERE accId=@accId AND charId=@charId;";
            up.Parameters.AddWithValue("@items", ojv);
            up.Parameters.AddWithValue("@accId", acc.AccountId);
            up.Parameters.AddWithValue("@charId", charId);
            up.ExecuteNonQuery();
            var del = CreateQuery();
            del.CommandText = "DELETE FROM shop WHERE accId=@accId AND chrId=@chrId;";
            del.Parameters.AddWithValue("@accId", acc.AccountId);
            del.Parameters.AddWithValue("@chrId", charId);
            del.ExecuteNonQuery();
        }

Answer 2

ExecuteScalar returns a number or null if no result set so you first need to check for null (before applying ToString()) and then parse into an integer (or big integer, or decimal whatever you need) and check for greater than zero.