c# - ArgumentNullException - how to simplify?

Question

I've noticed this code crops up a lot in my constructors:

if (someParam == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("someParam");
if (someOtherParam == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("someOtherParam");
...

I have a few constructors where several things are injected and must all be non-null. Can anyone think of a way to streamline this? The only thing I can think of is the following:

public static class ExceptionHelpers
{
   public static void CheckAndThrowArgNullEx(IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, object>> parameters)
   {
      foreach(var parameter in parameters)
         if(parameter.Value == null) throw new ArgumentNullException(parameter.Key);
   }
}

However, the usage of that would be something like:

ExceptionHelper.CheckAndThrowArgNullEx(new [] {
    new KeyValuePair<string, object>("someParam", someParam),
    new KeyValuePair<string, object>("someOtherParam", someOtherParam),
    ... });

... which doesn't really help streamline the code. Tuple.Create() instead of KVPs doesn't work because Tuple's GTPs aren't covariant (even though IEnumerable's GTP is). Any ideas?

Answer 1

Update for C# 7

You can use a throw expression with the null coalescing operator. Here is an example from that page:

public string Name
{
    get => name;
    set => name = value ?? 
        throw new ArgumentNullException(paramName: nameof(value), message: "New name must not be null");
}

Original Answer

Personally, I use the ThrowIfNull extension method. I don't know who to credit but I definitely didn't invent it. It's nice because you can do assignment with the return value:

public static T ThrowIfNull<T>(this T argument, string argumentName)
{
    if (argument == null)
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException(argumentName);
    }
    return argument;
}

Usage:

this.something = theArgument.ThrowIfNull("theArgument");
// or in C# 6
this.something = theArgument.ThrowIfNull(nameof(theArgument));

(Although some people think it's weird to call an extension method on a null instance)

If you really want to check more than one argument at a time, your example might be more streamlined if you used a params signature like so:

public static void CheckAndThrowArgNullEx(params object[] argsAndNames)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < argsAndNames.Length; i += 2)
    {
        if (argsAndNames[i] == null)
        {
            string argName = (string)argsAndNames[i + 1];
            throw new ArgumentNullException(argName);
        }
    }
}

and the usage would be:

CheckAndThrowArgNullEx(arg1, "arg1", arg2, "arg2");
// or in C# 6
CheckAndThrowArgNullEx(arg1, nameof(arg1), arg2, nameof(arg2));

---

On second thought, as KeithS mentions in the comments, it would probably be better to implement this as a set of overloads rather than using params object[] like this:

static void Check(object arg1, string arg1Name) { ... }
static void Check(object arg1, string arg1Name, object arg2, string arg2Name) { ... }
// and so on...