How to select a Nullable decimal type in LINQ?

Question

I have a column of type decimal in Db which is nullable too. What I want that if it's null then display 0.0 . For that I am trying following in my LINQ Statement:

CostPerUnit = od.CostPerUnit == null ? "0.0": od.CostPerUnit

Which gives error:

Error   9   Type of conditional expression cannot be determined because there is no implicit conversion between 'string' and 'decimal'  

Complete Statement also given for ref:

var rmas = (
                    from o in db.Orders
                    join od in db.OrderDetails on o.OrderNumber equals od.OrderNumber
                    join r in db.RMAs on o.OrderNumber equals r.OrderNumber
                    join rd in db.RMADetails on r.RMANumber equals rd.RMANumber
                    where (rd.WrongSKU == od.SKU)
                    join i in db.Inventory on od.SKU equals i.LocalSKU into grp
                    from g in grp.DefaultIfEmpty()
                    select new
                    {
                        r.RMANumber
                                    ,
                        r.Reason
                                    ,
                        o.Name
                                    ,
                        o.Company
                                    ,
                        o.Address
                                    ,
                        o.Address2
                                    ,
                        o.City,
                        o.State
                                    ,
                        o.Country
                                    ,
                        o.Email
                                    ,
                        o.Zip
                                    ,
                        o.Phone
                                    ,
                        o.ShipName,
                        o.ShipCompany
                                    ,
                        o.ShipAddress
                                    ,
                        o.ShipAddress2
                                    ,
                        o.ShipCity
                                    ,
                        o.ShipCountry
                                    ,
                        o.ShipState
                                    ,
                        o.ShipPhone
                                    ,
                        o.ShipZip

                                    ,
                        o.OrderNumber
                                    ,
                        o.ShippingTotal
                                    ,
                        o.BalanceDue
                                    ,
                        r.Status
                                    ,
                        OrderDate = o.OrderDate
                                    ,
                        DateIssued = r.DateIssued
                                    ,
                        SerialNumbers = rd.SerialNumbers ?? ""
                                    ,
                        o.SourceOrderID
                                    ,
                        od.SKU
                                    ,
                        od.ItemNumber
                                    ,
                        QTYOrdered = od.QuantityOrdered
                                    ,
                        od.QuantityReturned
                                    ,
                        rd.QuantityAuthorized
                                    ,
                        RMA_ItemNumber1 = rd.ItemNumber
                                    ,
                        rd.Price
                                    ,
                        rd.WrongSKU
                                    ,
                        g.Text1
                                    ,

                        CostPerUnit = od.CostPerUnit == null ? "0.0": od.CostPerUnit

                    }
                ).Take(50).ToList();

Answer 1

What you should do is this

CostPerUnit = od.CostPerUnit ?? 0.0m

This uses the Null Coalescing operator. It's specifically for adding default values for nullable types

What you can do is this

CostPerUnit = od.CostPerUnit == null ? 0.0m : od.CostPerUnit.Value

note the .Value property. It get's the non-nullable version of the decimal.

---

what you might be intending to do is this

CostPerUnit = od.CostPerUnit == null ? "0.0": od.CostPerUnit.Value.ToString()

That will make CostPerUnit a string