helpfull tip: stucts can't be tested for null and neither can int I think it's int anyway.

I usually do more then one check to make certian.
Code:
if(stringVar != null && stringVar != ""){return true;}
it isn't supposed to be required, either test should work, but I like to be sure of things. Also, back in vb6 Microsoft said a lot of things worked one way, and they flat out didn't and weird things would happen like the exact same code would work in one place and not in another, but that usually inloved strings.