Linq query with nullable sum

from i in Db.Items
select new VotedItem
{
    ItemId = i.ItemId,
    Points = (from v in Db.Votes
              where b.ItemId == v.ItemId
              select v.Points).Sum()
}

I got this query, however it fails if no votes are found with exception:

The null value cannot be assigned to a member with type System.Int32 which is a non-nullable value type.

I assume its because sum returns an int and not a nullable int, giving sum a int? as input only give the same error, probably cause sum only workes on ints.

Any good workaround for this?

You want to use the nullable form of Sum, so try casting your value to a nullable:

from i in Db.Items
select new VotedItem
{
    ItemId = i.ItemId,
    Points = (from v in Db.Votes
              where b.ItemId == v.ItemId
              select v.Points).Sum(r => (decimal?) r.Points)
}

Your issue is discussed here in more detail:

http://weblogs.asp.net/zeeshanhirani/archive/2008/07/15/applying-aggregates-to-empty-collections-causes-exception-in-linq-to-sql.aspx

from i in Db.Items
select new VotedItem
{
    ItemId = i.ItemId,
    Points = (from v in Db.Votes
              where b.ItemId == v.ItemId
              select v.Points ?? 0).Sum() 
}

EDIT - ok what about this... (Shooting again since I don't know your model...):

from i in Db.Items
select new VotedItem
{
    ItemId = i.ItemId,
    Points = (from v in Db.Votes
              where b.ItemId == v.ItemId)
              .Sum(v => v.Points) 
}

Assuming "v.Points" is a decimal just use the following:

from i in Db.Items
select new VotedItem
{
    ItemId = i.ItemId,
    Points = (from v in Db.Votes
              where b.ItemId == v.ItemId
              select (decimal?) v.Points).Sum() ?? 0
}

Try to check this out:

var count = db.Cart.Where(c => c.UserName == "Name").Sum(c => (int?)c.Count) ?? 0;

So, the root of the problem is that SQL query like this:

SELECT SUM([Votes].[Value])
FROM [dbo].[Votes] AS [Votes]
WHERE 1 = [Votes].[UserId] 

returns NULL