What is the use of Null Coalescing Operator (??) in C#?

The null coalescing operator is used with the nullable value types and reference types. It is used for converting an operand to the type of another nullable (or not) value type operand, where an implicit conversion is possible.

If the value of the first operand is null, then the operator returns the value of the second operand, otherwise it returns the value of the first operand.

class NullCoalesce
{
    static int? GetNullableInt()
    {
        return null;
    }

    static string GetStringValue()
    {
        return null;
    }

    static void Main()
    {
        int? x = null;

        // Set y to the value of x if x is NOT null; otherwise,
        // if x = null, set y to -1.
        int y = x ?? -1;

        // Assign i to return value of the method if the method's result
        // is NOT null; otherwise, if the result is null, set i to the
        // default value of int.
        int i = GetNullableInt() ?? default(int);

        string s = GetStringValue();
        // Display the value of s if s is NOT null; otherwise, 
        // display the string "Unspecified".
        Console.WriteLine(s ?? "Unspecified");
    }
}