These two operators can make your life easier: null-coalescing and ternary operators

The ?? operator is called the null-coalescing operator. It returns the left-hand operand if the operand is not null; otherwise it returns the right hand operand.

myNewValue = myValue ?? "other value";

Source: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms173224.aspx

The conditional operator (?:) returns one of two values depending on the value of a Boolean expression.

condition ? first_expression : second_expression;

The condition must evaluate to true or false. If condition is true, first_expression is evaluated and becomes the result. If condition is false, second_expression is evaluated and becomes the result.

classify = (input > 0) ? "positive" : "negative";

Source: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ty67wk28.aspx