[2008] Check Integer For Null Value Instead Of 0

Basically, when you set an Integer to "Nothing" it seems to equal the same value as if you were to set it to 0. So, in a function that returns an Integer how can I return something that will show that the function failed? In most cases I would use -1 or something but in this case I need to allow for negative values too.

Here's some more detailed information: I'm using the GetValue method of the Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey class to read a numeric value from the registry. The GetValue method has an optional argument that you can pass in that specifies what should be returned if the value did not exist, normally I would use Nothing but in this case because I am storing the returned value in an Integer then it is just the same as if the GetValue method returned 0 (which is a valid value in this case).

Example:

vb.net
Dim Reg As Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey = My.Computer.Registry.LocalMachine
Dim SubKey As Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey = Reg.OpenSubKey("SYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTimeZoneInformation", False)

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