{"id":200,"date":"2015-11-09T10:39:45","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T10:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/?p=200"},"modified":"2024-02-16T10:05:13","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T10:05:13","slug":"php-empty-function-with-3-examples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/php-empty-function-with-3-examples\/","title":{"rendered":"PHP empty Function"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12371\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/PHP-empty.jpg\" alt=\"PHP empty function tutorial Featured image\" width=\"600\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/PHP-empty.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/PHP-empty-300x250.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"bullet-1\">\n<h3><strong>Purpose of empty function<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The PHP empty function is used to determine if a variable is empty or not.<\/li>\n<li>It will return <strong>True<\/strong> if the given variable is empty and <strong>false<\/strong> if it exists or is a non-zero or more than zero characters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I will explain further in the later part of this tutorial, first syntax and live examples of using the empty function.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3><strong>Syntax to use empty function<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>This is how you can use the empty PHP function:<\/p>\n<div class=\"codesdiv1\">Bool_var = empty ($variable_to_check);<\/div>\n<p>Where, the variables can be of different types like an integer, string, or even an array, etc.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>An example of using the empty function<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In the following example, a string variable is declared and given a zero character value, i.e. \u201c\u201d. After that, the if condition is used with the empty function.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Code\/Output:<\/strong><\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"php\">\/\/The empty function example\r\n$str_a = \"\";\r\n\r\nif (empty($str_a)) {\r\n    echo \"The variable is empty\";\r\n}\r\nelse {\r\n    echo \"The variable is not empty\";\r\n}<\/pre>\n<p><strong>Output:<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"codeoutput\">The variable is empty<\/div>\n<p>You can see that the variable is shown as empty. That means if a string variable is declared and even assigned a \u201c\u201d value it is still taken as empty.<\/p>\n<p>However, if it contains some value like \u201cabc\u201d, it will not be considered as empty.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>An example with integer type variable<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In this example, an integer-type variable is declared and assigned a 0 value. See the output and description below:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"php\">\/\/The empty function example\r\n$int_a = 0;\r\n\r\nif (empty($int_a)) {\r\n    echo \"The variable is empty\";\r\n}\r\nelse {\r\n    echo \"The variable is not empty\";\r\n}<\/pre>\n<p><strong>Output:<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"codeoutput\">The variable is empty<\/div>\n<p>So, it is still returned as true or the integer variable is taken as empty. If the variable contains 1 or more values it will not be taken as empty, in the case of a string or float variable.<\/p>\n<div class=\"note-tips1\"><strong>Also note<\/strong>, even if a string variable contains the 0 value i.e. str=\u201d0\u201d, it will still be taken as empty.<\/div>\n<h3><strong>An empty example with array element<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div class=\"bullet-1\">\n<ul>\n<li>In this example, an associative array of three elements is used.<\/li>\n<li>The first and third elements of the array contain values other than zero.<\/li>\n<li>While the second element is assigned the 0 value.<\/li>\n<li>See the output yourself by clicking the link or image below:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"php\">\/\/The empty function example\r\n$salaries = array(); \r\n$salaries[\"Anna\"] = 5000;\r\n$salaries[\"John\"] = 0;\r\n$salaries[\"Aamir\"] = 10000;\r\n\r\nforeach($salaries as $key_arr =&gt; $val_arr){\r\n    if (empty($val_arr)){\r\n    echo \"(This is empty) \" . $key_arr . \" = \" .$val_arr .\"&lt;br \/&gt;\";\r\n    }\r\n    else{\r\n        echo \"(This is not empty) \" . $key_arr . \" = \" .$val_arr .\"&lt;br \/&gt;\";\r\n    }\r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n<p><strong>Output:<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"codeoutput\">(This is not empty) Anna = 5000<br \/>\n(This is empty) John = 0<br \/>\n(This is not empty) Aamir = 10000<\/div>\n<p>You see, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/php-foreach-loop-2-ways-to-use-it\/\">the foreach loop is used<\/a> to loop through the array elements. Inside the foreach, the if statement is also used and a message is displayed if the current array element is empty or not.<\/p>\n<p>The second element is shown as empty while other two as non-empty.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Why do we use the empty function?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Sometimes, you need to check if a variable contains a value or not before proceeding to some action.<\/p>\n<p>For example, you are taking the input values from the user in a web form. A few fields like Name, email, and address are mandatory in the form. While you can check it on the client side by using JavaScript, however, sometimes it may be disabled.<\/p>\n<p>In that case, you may check the variable values by using the empty function to ensure that a user has entered some values or otherwise redirect the user back to the form page rather than proceeding to save the information in the database.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>How to use PHP empty function<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Using the empty function is quite simple. You simply need to provide a variable name to check if it contains a value or is it is empty.<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"php\">Bool_variable = empty ($variable_to_check_for_empty);<\/pre>\n<p><strong>This is what the empty function takes as \u2018empty\u2019:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"bullet-1\">\n<ul>\n<li>If your string contains no characters or it is like this:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Str = \u201c\u201d;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Then this will be considered as empty.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If a variable is not defined or does not exist, it will be considered as empty.<\/li>\n<li>If you have declared a variable and not given any value, this will still be considered as empty.<\/li>\n<li>If a Boolean variable is False, this is also considered as empty.<\/li>\n<li>The integer or float variable with 0 value are also considered as empty.<\/li>\n<li>A variable with a NULL value is also taken as empty.<\/li>\n<li>An empty array is also taken as \u201cempty\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>A few examples are shown in the above section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Purpose of empty function The PHP empty function is used to determine if a variable is empty or not. It will return True if the given variable is empty and false if it exists or is a non-zero or more than zero characters. I will explain further in the later part of this tutorial, first &#8230; <a title=\"PHP empty Function\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/php-empty-function-with-3-examples\/\" aria-label=\"More on PHP empty Function\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>PHP empty Function with 3 Examples<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/php-empty-function-with-3-examples\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PHP empty Function with 3 Examples\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Purpose of empty function The PHP empty function is used to determine if a variable is empty or not. 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