Question

Currently whenever i am trying to determine when a variable is not defined i use the code

if($variable==””)

however i have been told by people to use the function

if(empty($variable))

Reading on this, it returns false if the value is 0, and i have plenty of array values that are zero that cant be returning false. i could always add ||$variable==0) to skip this.

But all i am asking is why is this a preferred method for determining empty variables, is it efficiency or is there more to it than that?

Answer 1

If you need to know, use strict type comparison:

if (empty($variable) && $variable !== 0) // !== instead of !=

Generally, you should use isset() – if the variable hasn’t yet been defined, it returns false:

$a = 4;
echo isset($a) ? 'a' : 'no a'; // a
echo isset($b) ? 'b' : 'not to b'; // not to b