So far we’ve seen:

• A reference to an object
• Multiple references to an object

What about a reference that refers to no object? In C# a reference to no object is called either a null reference or unassigned. We’ll need to apply these concepts in C# whenever we want to show that a reference is “missing”, create a reference variable without defining it, or initialize an empty array.

In the first use case, we’d like to create a reference that is “missing” or empty. We set it equal to the keyword null:

Diary dy = null;

In the second case, if we create a reference variable without a value, it is unassigned:

Diary dy;
// dy is unassigned

In the third case, if we create an empty array of reference types, each element is an unassigned reference:

Diary[] diaries = new Diary[5];
// diaries[1] is unassigned, diaries[2] is unassigned, etc.

Be careful when checking for null and unassigned references. We can only compare a null reference if it is explicitly labeled null:

Diary dy = null;
Console.WriteLine(dy == null);
// Output: true

For the other two cases, comparing an unassigned variable we’ll get an error:

Object o;
Console.WriteLine (o == null);
// error CS0165: Use of unassigned local variable 'o'

This might seem annoying at first, but it’s actually a good thing: the C# compiler prevents future issues down the road by raising an error the first time an unassigned variable is used.