Question

To alleviate some confusion, I’ve completely re-written this question.

---

Here is the controller:

<?php
class StaffController extends AppController{
    function test(){
        $this->data = $this->Staff->find( 'list' );
    }
}

Here is the entire view:

<pre>
Count: <?php echo count( $this->data ) . "\n"; ?>
Empty: <?php echo ( empty( $this->data ) ? 'true' : 'false' ) . "\n"; ?>
Count: <?php echo count( $this->data ) . "\n"; ?>
<?php var_dump( $this->data ) ?>
</pre>

Here is the rendered output:

Count: 2
Empty: true
Count: 2
array(2) {
  [1]=>
  string(12) "Mock Staff 1"
  [2]=>
  string(12) "Mock Staff 2"
}

Why would empty() return True when both count() and debug() show that a non-empty value has been assigned?

Is this a CakePHP bug? A PHP bug? ???

If I use another variable instead of $this->data :

function test(){
    $this->set( 'data', $this->Staff->find( 'list' ) );
}

And the view:

<pre>
Count: <?php echo count( $data ) . "\n"; ?>
Empty: <?php echo ( empty( $data ) ? 'true' : 'false' ) . "\n"; ?>
Count: <?php echo count( $data ) . "\n"; ?>
<?php var_dump( $data ) ?>
</pre>

it works as expected:

Count: 2
Empty: false
Count: 2
array(2) {
  [1]=>
  string(12) "Mock Staff 1"
  [2]=>
  string(12) "Mock Staff 2"
}

Any takers?

Answer 1

$this->data is special in Cake views. When you access $this->data in a view, you actually end up calling the magic method View::__get(), and empty() doesn’t work with methods or functions–it only works with variables. As you’ve found, the correct way to pass data to a view is by using $this->set() in your controller. Just to clarify, $this in the view is a different object than $this in your controller.