just return the value of the underlying field - which will be the default value of the underlying type for a null wrapper value anyway.</p>  <p>I&#39;ve benchmarked this, and on my laptop it&#39;s about 5% faster than using Value. But... it&#39;s such a grotty hack. I would feel dirty putting it in. Surely Value is the more readable code here - it just happens to be slower. As always, I&#39;m undecided. There&#39;s no behavioural difference, just a slight speed boost. Thoughts, folks?</p>  <h3>Conclusion</h