Inserting Null into a database with C#

Question

I'm pretty new to C# and am struggling with the following query.

I'm trying to insert values into a database, but it won't accept null as a value. I need to differentiate between 0 and nothing in this field as it shows whether a calculation has occurred or not.

Here's what I have so far:

System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection objConn = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection();
var connStr = @"Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=Z:\Projects\database.accdb";
System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand ins = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand();

objConn.ConnectionString = connStr;
objConn.Open();

ins.Connection = objConn;
ins.CommandText = "INSERT INTO AutomatedDecisionProcess(item1, item2, item3) VALUES(@item1, @item2, @item3)";

ins.Parameters.AddWithValue("@item1", SolveBlanks(row[0]));
ins.Parameters.AddWithValue("@item2", SolveBlanks(row[1]));
ins.Parameters.AddWithValue("@item3", SolveBlanks(row[2]));

ins.ExecuteNonQuery();
objConn.Close();
ins.Dispose();

Console.WriteLine("success?");

and I am trying this function I've written:

public static string SolveBlanks(object number)
{
        string answer = number.ToString();

        if (answer == "")
        {
            answer = null;
        }
        return answer;
}

Any ideas?

Answer 1

You should study about DBNull

Let's try the following code:

public static object SolveBlanks(object number)
        {
            object answer = number.ToString();
            if (answer == "")
            {
                answer = DBNull.Value;
            }
            return answer;
        }

Answer 2

Answer from : What is the difference between null and System.DBNull.Value?

This may help you...

Well, null is not an instance of any type. Rather, it is an invalid reference.

However, System.DbNull.Value, is a valid reference to an instance of System.DbNull (System.DbNull is a singleton and System.DbNull.Value gives you a reference to the single instance of that class) that represents nonexistent* values in the database.

*We would normally say null, but I don't want to confound the issue.

So, there's a big conceptual difference between the two. The keyword null represents an invalid reference. The class System.DbNull represents a nonexistent value in a database field. In general, we should try avoid using the same thing (in this case null) to represent two very different concepts (in this case an invalid reference versus a nonexistent value in a database field).

Keep in mind, this is why a lot of people advocate using the null object pattern in general, which is exactly what System.DbNull is an example of.