dammit operator

plural dammit operators

1. slangcomputingThe operator ! in the C# programming language, used to indicate to the compiler that a possibly null reference will not be null at that point.

   When we've filtered out all the null elements from our collection, we apply the dammit operator to the argument for ToTitleCase, as shown in Listing 2-34.

   2023, Steve Love, The C# Type System, page 66

   2 more examples

   If you have a reference that the compiler presumes could be null […] but which you have good reason to believe will never be null, you can tell the compiler this by using the null forgiving operator […] It is sometimes known informally as the dammit operator, because being an exclamation mark makes it look like a slightly exasperated kind of assertion.

   2019, Ian Griffiths, Programming C# 8.0: Build Cloud, Web, and Desktop Applications, page 119

   However, C# 8 does have a feature (which I've heard referred to as the dammit operator) that allows you to insist that, despite what the compiler believes, you know the variable will not be null; […]

   2019, Paul Michaels, Dirk Strauss, Jas Rademeyer, C# 8 and .NET Core 3 Projects Using Azure, page 63