此解决方案较少依赖于供应商，并与SQL, OleDB和MySQL Reader一起工作:

public static string GetStringSafe(this IDataReader reader, int colIndex)
{
    return GetStringSafe(reader, colIndex, string.Empty);
}

public static string GetStringSafe(this IDataReader reader, int colIndex, string defaultValue)
{
    if (!reader.IsDBNull(colIndex))
        return reader.GetString(colIndex);
    else
        return defaultValue;
}

public static string GetStringSafe(this IDataReader reader, string indexName)
{
    return GetStringSafe(reader, reader.GetOrdinal(indexName));
}

public static string GetStringSafe(this IDataReader reader, string indexName, string defaultValue)
{
    return GetStringSafe(reader, reader.GetOrdinal(indexName), defaultValue);
}

下面是其他人可以根据@marc_s的答案使用的helper类:

public static class SQLDataReaderExtensions
    {
        public static int SafeGetInt(this SqlDataReader dataReader, string fieldName)
        {
            int fieldIndex = dataReader.GetOrdinal(fieldName);
            return dataReader.IsDBNull(fieldIndex) ? 0 : dataReader.GetInt32(fieldIndex);
        }

        public static int? SafeGetNullableInt(this SqlDataReader dataReader, string fieldName)
        {
            int fieldIndex = dataReader.GetOrdinal(fieldName);
            return dataReader.GetValue(fieldIndex) as int?;
        }

        public static string SafeGetString(this SqlDataReader dataReader, string fieldName)
        {
            int fieldIndex = dataReader.GetOrdinal(fieldName);
            return dataReader.IsDBNull(fieldIndex) ? string.Empty : dataReader.GetString(fieldIndex);
        }

        public static DateTime? SafeGetNullableDateTime(this SqlDataReader dataReader, string fieldName)
        {
            int fieldIndex = dataReader.GetOrdinal(fieldName);
            return dataReader.GetValue(fieldIndex) as DateTime?;
        }

        public static bool SafeGetBoolean(this SqlDataReader dataReader, string fieldName)
        {
            return SafeGetBoolean(dataReader, fieldName, false);
        }

        public static bool SafeGetBoolean(this SqlDataReader dataReader, string fieldName, bool defaultValue)
        {
            int fieldIndex = dataReader.GetOrdinal(fieldName);
            return dataReader.IsDBNull(fieldIndex) ? defaultValue : dataReader.GetBoolean(fieldIndex);
        }
    }

Convert明智地处理DbNull。

employee.FirstName = Convert.ToString(sqlreader.GetValue(indexFirstName));

作为marc_s答案的补充，你可以使用一个更通用的扩展方法从SqlDataReader中获取值:

public static T SafeGet<T>(this SqlDataReader reader, int col)
    {
        return reader.IsDBNull(col) ? default(T) : reader.GetFieldValue<T>(col);
    }

你需要检查IsDBNull:

if(!SqlReader.IsDBNull(indexFirstName))
{
  employee.FirstName = sqlreader.GetString(indexFirstName);
}

这是检测和处理这种情况的唯一可靠方法。

我把这些东西包装到扩展方法中，如果列确实为空，则倾向于返回默认值:

public static string SafeGetString(this SqlDataReader reader, int colIndex)
{
   if(!reader.IsDBNull(colIndex))
       return reader.GetString(colIndex);
   return string.Empty;
}

现在你可以这样调用它:

employee.FirstName = SqlReader.SafeGetString(indexFirstName);

而且您再也不用担心异常或空值了。

整洁的小笑话:

    while (dataReader.Read())
{
    employee.FirstName = (!dataReader.IsDBNull(dataReader.GetOrdinal("FirstName"))) ? dataReader["FirstName"].ToString() : "";
}