Coalesce Operator (??)

Coalesce means to merge or unite things. When you put this operator between two variables, it will return the first one that is not null.

Example:

string name = firstName ?? lastName ?? middleName ?? string.Empty;

This if statement does the same thing:

string name = string.Empty; 
if (firstName != null)
      name = firstName; 
elseif (lastName != null)
     name = lastName; 
elseif (middleName!= null)
     name = middleName;

More Info: MSDN: ?? Operator
Thanks goes to my friend, Rich, for this info.