Shortest way to check for null and assign another value if not

Try this:

this.approved_by = IsNullOrEmpty(planRec.approved_by) ? "" : planRec.approved_by.toString();

You can also use the null-coalescing operator as other have said - since no one has given an example that works with your code here is one:

this.approved_by = planRec.approved_by ?? planRec.approved_by.toString();

But this example only works since a possible value for this.approved_by is the same as one of the potential values that you wish to set it to. For all other cases you will need to use the conditional operator as I showed in my first example.

Starting with C# 8.0, you can use the ??= operator to replace the code of the form

if (variable is null)
{
    variable = expression;
}

with the following code:

variable ??= expression;

More information is here

The coalesce operator (??) is what you want, I believe.

You are looking for the C# coalesce operator: ??. This operator takes a left and right argument. If the left hand side of the operator is null or a nullable with no value it will return the right argument. Otherwise it will return the left.

var x = somePossiblyNullValue ?? valueIfNull;