[Mercury Feature Request] Operator to prevent Null assignements

Languages Visual Basic
1

This request is syntaxical sugar to prevent NULL assignements to objects.

Requested syntax:

SomeFunctionThatCanReturnNull(params) WhenNull ToAssignWhenResultIsNull(otherParams)

This should translate to:

Dim _res = Function(params, otherParams)
    Dim _tmp = SomeFunctionThatCanReturnNull(params)
    If _tmp Is Null Then
        _tmp = ToAssignWhenResultIsNull(otherparams)
    End If
End Function

So the code:

Dim a = SomeFunctionThatCanReturnNull(params) WhenNull ToAssignWhenResultIsNull(otherparams)

Translates to:

Dim _res = Function(params, otherparams)
    Dim _tmp = SomeFunctionThatCanReturnNull(params)
    If _tmp Is Null Then
        _tmp = ToAssignWhenResultIsNull(otherparams)
    End If
End Function
Dim a = res(params, otherparams)

And the code

If a = SomeFunctionThatCanReturnNull(params) WhenNull ToAssignWhenResultIsNull(otherparams) Then

Translates to:

Dim _res = Function(params, otherparams)
    Dim _tmp = SomeFunctionThatCanReturnNull(params)
    If _tmp Is Null Then
        _tmp = ToAssignWhenResultIsNull(otherparams)
    End If
End Function
If a = _res(params, otherparams) Then