Read column value for a list item programmatically

While reading list item’s column value using code, we get exception if column is empty/ null. To avoid such exception, we can use this line of code while reading column value.

if (item["ColumnInternalName"] != null && SPEncode.HtmlEncode(item["ColumnInternalName"].ToString()) != string.Empty && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(item["ColumnInternalName"].ToString()))
{   
    ImageFieldValue image = (ImageFieldValue)item["ColumnInternalName"];   
    imageURL = image.ImageUrl;
}
else
{   
     imageURL = "/_layouts/images/icon.png";
}