Check if array is not empty

Question

********Update**********

var_dump: string(0) ""

I am trying to check if part of an array is not empty then display code but the code get's displayed anyway.

I have tried !is_null !empty. I am not really sure which should be correct or should I go with: if (sizeof($book['Booking']['comments'])>0)

Code:

<?php if (!empty($book['Booking']['comments'])) {?>
    <table width="100%" border="0">
        <tbody>
            <tr>
                <td style="font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;color:#666666;">
                    <?=$book['Booking']['comments']?>
                </td>
            </tr>
        </tbody>
    </table>
<? } ?>

Array:

Array
(
[Booking] => Array
    (
        [id] => 109
        [user_id] => 1
        [corporate_account_id] => 0
        [id_ref] => RES000109
        [price] => 178.00
        [arrival] => 2011-10-18 00:00:00
        [departure] => 2011-10-19 00:00:00
        [rate_title] => 
        [adult_guests] => 4
        [child_guests] => 0
        [company] => gravitate
        [titlename] => 
        [firstname] => John
        [surname] => Doe
        [address1] => 123 Fake St
        [address2] => 
        [city] => New York
        [state] => NY
        [postcode] => 12345
        [country] => US
        [phone] => 1111111111
        [mobile] => 
        [fax] => 
        [email] => example@example.com
        [comments] => 
        [created] => 2011-10-18 13:40:47
        [updated] => 2011-10-18 13:40:47
        [status] => 1
        [cancelled] => 0
        [request_src] => website
        [request_token] => 0
        [token] => ayzrGnx
        [survey_sent] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00
        [survey_returned] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00
        [send_sms] => 0
        [payment_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00
        [fullname] =>  John Doe
    )

What's the type of `comments` supposed to be? `empty` should work fine in all cases except when you have a string composed entirely of whitespace. — Jon, Oct 18 '11 at 13:08
possible duplicate of [How to tell if a PHP array is empty?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2216052/how-to-tell-if-a-php-array-is-empty) — Limon Monte, Aug 26 '15 at 13:26

DaveRandom · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-10T09:04:25.427

8

I suspect it may contain (bool) FALSE, which is not true for is_null().

Try simply:

if ($book['Booking']['comments']) {

This should also work for anything that evaluates to FALSE, like an empty string.

edited Dec 10 '11 at 09:04

answered Oct 18 '11 at 13:08

DaveRandom

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`which is not true for empty()` - who said you that? – Your Common Sense Oct 18 '11 at 14:12
`if (!$book['Booking']['comments']) {` will do the opposite. – Your Common Sense Oct 18 '11 at 14:18
Whoa! Two months took you to correct one statement ;) What about other one? – Your Common Sense Dec 10 '11 at 08:55
@Col.Shrapnel somebody +1ed me for it randomly, to be honest I haven't re-visited this page since I wrote this, and I have admit this is *not* the best answer here... but it might as well be correct in it's inadequacy... – DaveRandom Dec 10 '11 at 09:07

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 18 '11 at 13:05

3

if (count($book['Booking']['comments']) > 0) { ... }

answered Oct 18 '11 at 13:05

Nathan Loding

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Your Common Sense · Answer 3 · 2011-10-18T14:21:22.177

your question is too localized. There is some typo in your code or something like that.

There is absolutely no difference what to use in your case, if (!empty($var)) or if ($var). So, if ($book['Booking']['comments']) { worked, there was no problem with your if (!empty($book['Booking']['comments'])) too. So, there was no poin in the question at all.

All these answers trying to answer this not-a-real-question are nonsense.

the only issue can be a space symbol mentioned by jotorres1, but you have already said there are none.

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 18 '11 at 13:13

!empty($var), count($var) > 0, !$var, all of these will work in most situations. empty() has the "advantage" of not throwing a notice when the given variable / array key doesn't exist, but if you don't have to worry about that a boolean check (!$var) should suffice (see here which types convert to FALSE). It also happens to be the shortest in code.

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 18 '11 at 13:09

1

I don't think that $book['Booking']['comments'] is even an array in this case. So you could just use strlen http://php.net/manual/en/function.strlen.php

<?php if (strlen($book['Booking']['comments'])) {?>

answered Oct 18 '11 at 13:09

leo.vingi

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score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 18 '11 at 13:10

1

You may want to trim() that property to remove any whitespace before testing if it is empty().

Edit: I'm assuming it is a string. It doesn't look like an empty array.

answered Oct 18 '11 at 13:10

Donnie

6,229
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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 18 '11 at 13:14

1

that is not an array for sure.

do var_dump($book["Booking"]["comments"]) to check the data type accordingly

answered Oct 18 '11 at 13:14

hex4

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then you should just do - if($book["Booking"]["comments"] == "") – hex4 Oct 18 '11 at 13:20
I would like to display the code if it is not empty would I use ===? Thanks – Keith Power Oct 18 '11 at 13:22

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 18 '11 at 14:08

I think you can try to use this following logic, and try to make it a little bit simpler.

<?php 
    // Only change this
    // and leave everything else as is
    $book_comment = $book['Booking']['comments'];
    $book_comment = trim($book_comment);
    // The reason I use empty trim, is to take 
    // away any space.  
    // In the output, use the original $book['Booking']['comments']

    if(!empty($book_comment)):?>

      <table width="100%" border="0">
          <tbody>
              <tr>
                  <td style="font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;color:#666666;">
                      <?=$book['Booking']['comments']?>
                  </td>
              </tr>
          </tbody>
       </table>
<?php endif;?>

I have not tested this, as I can't right now, but hopefully that should somewhat help you.

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 19 '16 at 14:23

0

Empty array:

$array = array();

reset($array) returns FALSE.
Populated array:

$array = array('foo', 'bar');

reset($array) returns first element ('foo').

answered Aug 19 '16 at 14:23

leymannx

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 30 '16 at 11:12

If you want to ascertain whether the variable you are testing is actually explicitly an not empty array, you could use something like this:

if ($book['Booking']['comments'] !== array()) {
  //your logic goes here
  ....................
}

This logic is more faster from others solution. Also it will maintain coding standard.

Check if array is not empty

10 Answers10