Structure Pet
    Public Name As String
    Public Age As Integer
End Structure

Shared Sub DefaultIfEmptyEx1()
    ' Create a list of Pet objects.
    Dim pets As New List(Of Pet)(New Pet() { _
                        New Pet With {.Name = "Barley", .Age = 8}, _
                        New Pet With {.Name = "Boots", .Age = 4}, _
                        New Pet With {.Name = "Whiskers", .Age = 1}})

    ' Call DefaultIfEmtpy() on the collection that Select()
    ' returns, so that if the initial list is empty, there
    ' will always be at least one item in the returned array.
    Dim names() As String = pets.AsQueryable() _
        .Select(Function(Pet) Pet.Name) _
        .DefaultIfEmpty() _
        .ToArray()

    Dim first As String = names(0)
    MsgBox(first)

    ' This code produces the following output:
    '
    ' Barley

End Sub

class Pet
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }
}

public static void DefaultIfEmptyEx1()
{
    // Create a list of Pet objects.
    List<Pet> pets =
        new List<Pet>{ new Pet { Name="Barley", Age=8 },
                       new Pet { Name="Boots", Age=4 },
                       new Pet { Name="Whiskers", Age=1 } };

    // Call DefaultIfEmtpy() on the collection that Select()
    // returns, so that if the initial list is empty, there
    // will always be at least one item in the returned array.
    string[] names =
        pets.AsQueryable()
        .Select(pet => pet.Name)
        .DefaultIfEmpty()
        .ToArray();

    string first = names[0];
    Console.WriteLine(first);
}

/*
    This code produces the following output:

    Barley
*/