title: Checking for Null values when accessing field values
body: <p>I am attempting to check a field value for null.</p>
  
  <p>Assuming that item is a valid Outlook ContactItem, the following code, I would have thought, would have checked for a null value and returned "(Empty)" if the relevant field is null.</p>
  
  <pre><code>EntryID = item.EntryID.ToString() ?? "(nothing)";
  Title = item.Title.ToString() ?? "(nothing)";
  First_Name = item.FirstName.ToString() ?? "(nothing)";
  Middle_Name = item.MiddleName.ToString() ?? "(nothing)";
  Last_Name = item.LastName.ToString() ?? "(nothing)";
  Suffix = item.Suffix.ToString() ?? "(nothing)";
  Company = item.CompanyName.ToString() ?? "(nothing)";
  Home_Phone = item.HomeTelephoneNumber.ToString() ?? "(nothing)";
  Mobile_Phone = item.MobileTelephoneNumber.ToString() ?? "(nothing)";
  FirstLastName= item.LastNameAndFirstName.ToString() ?? "(nothing)";
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, what is happening on other fields, is an error as follows:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Object reference not set to an instance of an object. 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The error is not a NullReferenceException in the strict sense - the error relates to the contacts field not the ContactItem object.</p>
  
  <p>Now would I be right in saying that the error is actually telling me that the field is in fact an object, which if it does contain text, is removed from the ContactItem ?</p>
  
  <p>I have attempted to mitigate the error, by filling in each field in an Outlook Contact - the error does not get thrown - but if I delete the field contents, of say CompanyName, the code will fail on that line with the same error.</p>
  
  <p>If I am right, then how would I check if the object exists prior to trying to get the field contents?</p>
  
  <p>MTIA</p>
  
  <p>DWE</p>