I frequently face the problem to check whether an IEnumerable<T>
is null before iterating over it through foreach or LINQ queries, then I often come into codes like this:
var myProjection = (myList ?? Enumerable.Empty<T>()).Select(x => x.Foo)...
Hence, I thought to add this extension-method to an Extensions class:
public static class MyExtensions
{
public static IEnumerable<T> AsEmptyIfNull<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source)
{
return source ?? Enumerable.Empty<T>();
}
}
A little issue comes immediately in my mind looking at this code, i.e., given the "instance-methods aspect" of extension-methods, it should be implemented as a mere static method, otherwise something like this would be perfectly legal:
IEnumerable<int> list = null;
list.AsEmptyIfNull();
Do you see any other drawback in using it ?
Can such extension leading to some kind of bad-trend in the developer(s), if massively used?
Bonus question:
Can you suggest a better name to it ? :)
(English is not my first language, then I'm not so good in naming...)
Thanks in advance.
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