C# short if statement
<p>Is there a way to do this in C# without making a new method to overload for every var type there is?  </p>

<pre><code>$box = !empty($toy) : $toy ? "";  
</code></pre>

<p>The only ways I can think of to do it is either:</p>

<pre><code>if (toy != null)
{
    box += toy; 
}  
</code></pre>

<p>or this:  </p>

<pre><code>public string emptyFilter(string s) ...
public int emptyFilter(int i) ...
public bool emptyFilter(bool b) ...
public object emptyFilter(object o) 
{
    try 
    {
        if (o != null)
        {
            return o.ToString(); 
        }
        else 
        {
            return ""; 
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        return "exception thrown": 
    }
}

box += this.emptyFilter(toy);
</code></pre>

<p>I basically wanna check to make sure that the variable/property is set/not empty/exists/has value/etc... and return it or "" without some ridiculous about of code like above. </p>
