There is no need to keep calling .ToString()
as getValue
is already a string.
Aside that, this line could possibly be your problem:
string getValue = cmd.ExecuteScalar().ToString();
If there are no rows .ExecuteScalar
will return null
so you need to do some checking.
For instance:
var firstColumn = cmd.ExecuteScalar();
if (firstColumn != null) {
result = firstColumn.ToString();
}