>>>Case in point: What do you do with a strongly typed DataRow value? You have to check for null before you use it. <
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>Well, yes, depending on how you're using it. Sometimes I don't bother using the strongly typed value in the DataRow, I'll use it the untyped way.
>
Column elements in typed DataSets can have a 'codegen:nullValue="_empty"' attribute added to them to control what value is exposed when the underlying data is DBNull.

Maybe the other data access classes - like DataReaders - need similar functionality.