C# ?? operator

I just found one beautiful operator of C#, which is ?? Its more compact then ternary operator [?:]. Ternary operator is short form of if-else and ?? is also kind of if else, but its work with null value an one assumption. lets see how it works. Its always case when we have to check for null condition, like query string check or Session value check, here how we do to check null for query string.

string strUserId = null;

//Using if-else
if (Request["uid"] == null)
    strUserId = string.Empty;
else
    strUserId = Request["uid"];

//Using ternary operator
strUserId = Request["uid"] == null ? string.Empty : Request["uid"];

now lets use ?? operator

//Using ?? operator
strUserId = Request["uid"] ?? string.Empty;

Isn't it handy? What is does is, it check only for null, it it found left side null then return the value form right hand else it returns left hand site value itself. In our case if there is no uid in query string then will return empty string or else will return the value of uid from query string.