True, we have things better now, with IDEs and tools that will help catch problems. But still, to me, leaving off the outer {}s for the using block strikes me a just being clever to prove a point. Who cares about two extra lines of brace, vs. the risk of subtle bugs and confusing the cow orkers who follow you?

using(var userEntry = GetUserEntryFor(userName))
{
if(userEntry != null)
{
// Do something with userEntry
}
}

Everyone (should) knows what the above means. From the comments what you did confused some people.

If at some point the test for userEntry becomes more complex maybe a method is warrented. But the test should always be inside the explicitly braced using block.

@Chris: The code you showed is what I had at first. But I had several DirectoryEntry objects that way, so I found this syntax to be more compact but still readable.

public static bool IsNotNull(this T myObject)
{
return myObject != null;
}

vs the CouldBeFound method, then you have a not null for everything, and it’s nice and readable

if(userEntry.IsNotNull())

or something like that.

var userEntry = GetUserEntryFor(userName);
if(userEntry == null)
return;

using (userEntry)
{
// Do something with userEntry
}

But why not just do a null check? is there ever a possibility that CouldBeFound is going to do anything more then checking to see if entry is null?

your basically turning one line of code into 3, and kinda makes it harder to read.

Now if you where going to be doing something more then just doing a null check, like doing some form of validation then yes it would be a good coding standard. In this case I think your over complicating it. that’s just my 2 cents.