If my MSSQL database contains a data type that is NULL (i.e. null is allowed) then ORMs, such as EntityFramework in my case, create .NET objects that are nullable.

This is great, and the way I use nullables is like this:

C#

int? someInt = 5;

int newInt = someInt.Value; // woot

VB.NET

Dim someInt As Integer?

Dim newInt As Integer = someInt.Value ' hooray

However, recently I had to make a change to the database to make an Id field no longer NULL (nullable). This means that .Value is now broken. This is a nuisance if the Id property is used a lot.

One solution that I thought of is to just use Convert.ToInt32 on Id fields so it doesn't matter if an int is nullable or not.

C#

int newInt = Convert.ToInt32(someInt); // always compiles

VB.NET

Dim newInt As Integer = Convert.ToInt32(someInt) ' always compiles

Is this a bad approach and are there any alternatives?