Handling NullReferenceException in a LINQ Query with Entity Framework Core 5.0
I've been working on this all day and I'm experiencing a `NullReferenceException` when executing a LINQ query using Entity Framework Core 5.0... The query is supposed to return a list of users with their associated orders, but it seems to unexpected result when there are users without any orders. Here's the LINQ query I'm using: ```csharp var userOrders = await _context.Users .Include(u => u.Orders) .Select(u => new { UserName = u.UserName, OrdersCount = u.Orders.Count() }) .ToListAsync(); ``` When I run this code, I encounter the following behavior: ``` System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. ``` To troubleshoot, I checked if the `Orders` navigation property is properly set up in my `User` model. It looks like this: ```csharp public class User { public int Id { get; set; } public string UserName { get; set; } public virtual ICollection<Order> Orders { get; set; } } ``` From what I understand, if a user has no orders, `u.Orders` should just return an empty collection instead of being null. I've also ensured that the database is seeded with users who do not have orders. I attempted to add a null check directly in my LINQ but it didn't seem to resolve the scenario: ```csharp var userOrders = await _context.Users .Include(u => u.Orders) .Select(u => new { UserName = u.UserName, OrdersCount = u.Orders != null ? u.Orders.Count() : 0 }) .ToListAsync(); ``` This still results in the same exception. Am I missing something in my query or configuration? Any advice on how to handle this scenario correctly would be greatly appreciated! My development environment is Windows. Any ideas what could be causing this? I'm working in a Debian environment. What's the correct way to implement this?