Why a function checking if a string is empty always returns true?

Question

I have a function isNotEmpty which returns true if the string is not empty and false if the string is empty. I've found out that it is not working if I pass an empty string through it.

function isNotEmpty($input) 
{
    $strTemp = $input;
    $strTemp = trim($strTemp);

    if(strTemp != '') //Also tried this "if(strlen($strTemp) > 0)"
    {
         return true;
    }

    return false;
}

The validation of the string using isNotEmpty is done:

if(isNotEmpty($userinput['phoneNumber']))
{
    //validate the phone number
}
else
{
    echo "Phone number not entered<br/>";
}

If the string is empty the else doesn't execute, I don't understand why, can someone please shed some light on this please.

Answer 1

Simple problem actually. Change:

if (strTemp != '')

to

if ($strTemp != '')

Arguably you may also want to change it to:

if ($strTemp !== '')

since != '' will return true if you pass is numeric 0 and a few other cases due to PHP's automatic type conversion.

You should not use the built-in empty() function for this; see comments and the PHP type comparison tables.

Answer 2

I always use a regular expression for checking for an empty string, dating back to CGI/Perl days, and also with Javascript, so why not with PHP as well, e.g. (albeit untested)

return preg_match('/\S/', $input);

Where \S represents any non-whitespace character

Answer 3

In your if clause in the function, you're referring to a variable strTemp that doesn't exist. $strTemp does exist, though.

But PHP already has an empty() function available; why make your own?

if (empty($str))
    /* String is empty */
else
    /* Not empty */

From php.net:

Return Values

Returns FALSE if var has a non-empty and non-zero value.

The following things are considered to be empty:

* "" (an empty string)
* 0 (0 as an integer)
* "0" (0 as a string)
* NULL
* FALSE
* array() (an empty array)
* var $var; (a variable declared, but without a value in a class)

http://www.php.net/empty

Answer 4

PHP have a built in function called empty() the test is done by typing if(empty($string)){...} Reference php.net : php empty

Answer 5

PHP evaluates an empty string to false, so you can simply use:

if (trim($userinput['phoneNumber'])) {
  // validate the phone number
} else {
  echo "Phone number not entered<br/>";
}

Answer 6

Just use strlen() function

if (strlen($s)) {
   // not empty
}

Answer 7

I just write my own function, is_string for type checking and strlen to check the length.

function emptyStr($str) {
    return is_string($str) && strlen($str) === 0;
}

print emptyStr('') ? "empty" : "not empty";
// empty

Here's a small test repl.it

EDIT: You can also use the trim function to test if the string is also blank.

is_string($str) && strlen(trim($str)) === 0;    

Answer 8

I needed to test for an empty field in PHP and used

ctype_space($tempVariable)

which worked well for me.

Answer 9

Well here is the short method to check whether the string is empty or not.

$input; //Assuming to be the string


if(strlen($input)==0){
return false;//if the string is empty
}
else{
return true; //if the string is not empty
}

Answer 10

You can simply cast to bool, dont forget to handle zero.

function isEmpty(string $string): bool {
    if($string === '0') {
        return false;
    }
    return !(bool)$string;
}

var_dump(isEmpty('')); // bool(true)
var_dump(isEmpty('foo')); // bool(false)
var_dump(isEmpty('0')); // bool(false)

Answer 11

I know this thread been pretty old but I just wanted to share one of my function. This function below can check for empty strings, string with maximum lengths, minimum lengths, or exact length. If you want to check for empty strings, just put $min_len and $max_len as 0.

function chk_str( $input, $min_len = null, $max_len = null ){

    if ( !is_int($min_len) && $min_len !== null ) throw new Exception('chk_str(): $min_len must be an integer or a null value.');
    if ( !is_int($max_len) && $max_len !== null ) throw new Exception('chk_str(): $max_len must be an integer or a null value.'); 

    if ( $min_len !== null && $max_len !== null ){
         if ( $min_len > $max_len ) throw new Exception('chk_str(): $min_len can\'t be larger than $max_len.');
    }

    if ( !is_string( $input ) ) {
        return false;
    } else {
        $output = true;
    }

    if ( $min_len !== null ){
        if ( strlen($input) < $min_len ) $output = false;
    }

    if ( $max_len !== null ){
        if ( strlen($input) > $max_len ) $output = false;
    }

    return $output;
}

Answer 12

if you have a field namely serial_number and want to check empty then

$serial_number = trim($_POST[serial_number]);
$q="select * from product where user_id='$_SESSION[id]'";
$rs=mysql_query($q);
while($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($rs)){
if(empty($_POST['irons'])){
$irons=$row['product1'];
}

in this way you can chek all the fileds in the loop with another empty function

Answer 13

this is the short and effective solution, exactly what you're looking for :

return $input > null ? 'not empty' : 'empty' ;

Answer 14

You got an answer but in your case you can use

return empty($input);

or

return is_string($input);