#1,205 – C# 6.0 – Using the Null-Conditional when Invoking a Delegate

When you fire an event (by invoking a delegate), you typically need to check for null before invocation.  This avoids a null reference exception if there are no subscribers to the event.

    public class Dog
    {
        public Dog(string name, int age)
        {
            Name = name;
            Age = age;
        }

        public event EventHandler<string> NameChange;

        private string name;
        public string Name
        {
            get { return name; }
            set
            {
                if (value != name)
                {
                    name = value;

                    // Check for null before invocation
                    if (NameChange != null)
                    {
                        NameChange(this, name);
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        public int Age { get; set; }
    }

(The above pattern is not thread-safe).

An alternative pattern is to declare the event with a null handler, so that there is always at least one handler on the invocation list. (This is thread-safe).

In C# 6.0, we can use the null-conditional to invoke a delegate.

                    NameChange?.Invoke(this, name);