WEB TUTORIALS
PRACTICE EXAMPLES
HTML REFERENCES
CSS REFERENCES
PHP REFERENCES

How to check whether a variable is empty in PHP

Topic: PHP / MySQLPrev|Next

Answer: Use the PHP empty() function

You can use the PHP empty() function to find out whether a variable is empty or not. A variable is considered empty if it does not exist or if its value equals FALSE.

Let's try out the following example to understand how this function basically works:

<?php
$var1 = '';
$var2 = 0;
$var3 = NULL;
$var4 = FALSE;
$var5 = array();
 
// Testing the variables
if(empty($var1)){
    echo 'This line is printed, because the $var1 is empty.';
}
echo "<br>";
 
if(empty($var2)){
    echo 'This line is printed, because the $var2 is empty.';
}
echo "<br>";
 
if(empty($var3)){
    echo 'This line is printed, because the $var3 is empty.';
}
echo "<br>";
 
if(empty($var4)){
    echo 'This line is printed, because the $var4 is empty.';
}
echo "<br>";
 
if(empty($var5)){
    echo 'This line is printed, because the $var5 is empty.';
}
?>

Note: The empty() function does not generate a warning if the variable does not exist. That means empty() is equivalent to !isset($var) || $var == false.


Related FAQ

Here are some more FAQ related to this topic:

Bootstrap UI Design Templates Property Marvels - A Leading Real Estate Portal for Premium Properties