What does "DateTime?" mean in C#?
It's a nullable DateTime. ?
after a primitive type/structure indicates that it is the nullable version.
DateTime is a structure that can never be null. From MSDN:
The DateTime value type represents dates and times with values ranging from 12:00:00 midnight, January 1, 0001 Anno Domini, or A.D. (also known as Common Era, or C.E.) through 11:59:59 P.M., December 31, 9999 A.D. (C.E.)
DateTime?
can be null however.
Since DateTime
is a struct
, not a class
, you get a DateTime
object, not a reference, when you declare a field or variable of that type.
And, in the same way as an int
cannot be null
, so this DateTime
object can never be null
, because it's not a reference.
Adding the question mark turns it into a nullable type, which means that either it is a DateTime
object, or it is null
.
DateTime?
is syntactic sugar for Nullable<DateTime>
, where Nullable
is itself a struct
.
A ? as a suffix for a value type allows for null assignments that would be othwerwise impossible.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/b3h38hb0.aspx
Represents an object whose underlying type is a value type that can also be assigned a null reference.
This means that you can write something like this:
DateTime? a = null;
if (!a.HasValue)
{
a = DateTime.Now;
if (a.HasValue)
{
Console.WriteLine(a.Value);
}
}
DateTime? is syntatically equivalent to Nullable<DateTime>.