The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
Back to feedPost
Why string.IsNullOrEmpty() stops at strings — and why that matters for your code
Ever wondered why .NET gives you string.IsNullOrEmpty() but no equivalent for lists or mixed-type collections? It’s not an oversight — it’s intentional design.
In my latest article, I explore:
The “innocent helper” every C# dev knows
Why generalizing it to lists or heterogeneous collections is ambiguous
How to design domain-specific, rule-based solutions safely
If you work with APIs, validation, or library design, this is a must-read for understanding where convenience ends and ambiguity begins.
medium.com
Why .NET Stops at string.IsNullOrEmpty()
Convenience ends where ambiguity begins.
The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
Related posts
I took a raw customer orders sheet with extra spaces, mixed text cases, duplicate rows, five different date formats and inconsistent phone numbers. I cleaned it into a consistent table and flagged the missing values for follow-up instead of guessing. I used trim, proper, datevalue, substitute and Remove Duplicates.
#Excel #MicrosoftExcel #DataAnalysis #DataAnalytics #Spreadsheets #ExcelExpert #Freelance#DataCleaning #DataCleansing #DataPreparation #ExcelTips #DataQuality
I built an order entry form with dropdown lists, rules for quantity and date, and clear error messages. It uses xlookup to fill in product name, category and price automatically, so users make fewer mistakes and enter less by hand.
#DataValidation #XLOOKUP #Excel #ExcelFormulas #ExcelAutomation #Spreadsheets #Freelance #DataAnalytics
The fix for an agent that keeps getting your design system wrong isn't a better prompt.
It's putting the rules where the agent reads them.
In the repo. In skills. In checks it can run itself.
Writing a course about exactly this.
What sells it for me is the refusal telling the agent exactly where the token should go. A bare "no hex" error usually just sends it looping. Does guard.mjs run only as an agent hook, or in pre-commit too so it catches humans as well?