Nullable is the perfect solution for TryParse. The InvalidOperationException on null is the equivalent of the NullPointerException you would expect for a refere

Nullable is the perfect solution for TryParse. The InvalidOperationException on null is the equivalent of the NullPointerException you would expect for a reference class TryParse method. I have implemented TryParse methods on many reference types with exactly these semantics - object on success, null on failure (often with details logged at DEBUG).