Extending IDataReader

I like to access my DataReader objects via column name. Unfortunately, IDataReader supports getting items via integer indexer.

To overcome this *obstacle*, I've written an extension method I'd like to share. It checks to see whether a column exists and has a value associated with it.

   1:      public static class IDataReaderExtension

   2:      {

   3:          /// <summary>

   4:          /// Adds the HasValue property to an IDataReader, which checks based on Column name

   5:          /// </summary>

   6:          /// <param name="reader">An IDataReader object</param>

   7:          /// <param name="column">The string column name</param>

   8:          /// <returns>boolean</returns>

   9:          public static bool HasValue(this IDataReader reader, string column)

  10:          {

  11:              if (reader.GetSchemaTable().Columns.Contains(column))

  12:                  return reader[column] != null || reader[column] != DBNull.Value;

  13:              else

  14:                  return false;

  15:          }

  16:      }

In order to use this method, you can now check:

   1:  if(reader.HasValue("MY_COLUMN"))

   2:  {

   3:      myObject.ColumnInfo = Convert.ToString(reader["MY_COLUMN"]);

   4:  }