An empty array in PHP is considered falsey. That means the following will not print anything as the array is empty.
<?php
$myArray = array()
if ( $myArray ) {
print "My Array is NOT empty";
}
What is considered better practice in this case when determining if there are elements in the array:
if ( !empty( $myArray ) )if ( myArray )Please note: this question is not about subjectivity. I don't care what my team mate thinks. I care about best practices in the industry.
If the intent of your condition is to check that the array contains 0 elements, using count($array) === 0 is the best and most readable solution.
count() is defined for all types, it simply returns 1 for anything other than an array. However it will return 0 for an unset variable (which would raise a Notice), or for null: 3v4l.org/7lEGR Whether this particular set of cases is more or less useful than other "empty"/"falsey" values depends on the situation.
null, then there are 0 things; if it's a scalar or non-countable object, there is 1 thing; if it's an array or collection object implementing Countable, then it looks how many things are in the list / collection. Another clue that the name is count not array_count.
empty(), but it should be mentioned that counting (= iterating the whole array) is much slower and could even result in memory issues when working with huge arrays and/or being careless with the memory in general. So, always be aware of what you count! :)
Commented
Jul 9, 2018 at 16:31
count() on a native array will only cause that int value to be returned. This makes the check very inexpensive.
Commented
Jul 10, 2018 at 17:16
I'd say it depends on the "typical" audience who would be reading the code.
If they are likely to be beginners, less familiar with PHP, or coming from a more verbose language (like Java), then they longer, more explicit if ( !empty( $myArray ) ) would be more clear.
If they are moderately experienced with PHP, C, JavaScript, etc. then the terser, more idiomatic if ( $myArray ) would be my preference.
loose type is one of problems of PHP, but also it gives good developers more flexibility.
If you already defined $myArray = array(); Then you can just use if ($myArray), because you already know it is an array, and also the name tells you it is an array. falsy case would happen only when $myArray is empty.
But, you don't need to specify $myArray because there is a count() function, check if it is empty Countable. It will throw a warning when you pass a string of anything not countable. (above PHP7.2)
No matter what you prefer, there is no point to do if (!empty($myArray)) because you are coding in PHP. You need to take advantage of falsy values, not against it.
This is the correct way in PHP; please use the below format:
$array = array(......);
if(!empty($myArray) && count($myArray) > 0){
echo 'array is not empty';
}
if you want to retrieve data from array at that time if ( $myArray ) is simplest way.
if ( $myArray ) is falsy case this can happen when array does not have any element.
( $myArray ) is not applicable to associative arrays.
If you want to check that array is empty or not at that time you can use if ( empty( $myArray ) ) beacuase it provide better performance for all type of array .so if ( empty( $myArray ) ) is better practice for checking empty array.
you can consider following result:
Contents \method | count | empty
------------------|--------------|--------------|
Empty |/* 1.213138 */|/* 1.070011 */|
Uniform |/* 1.206680 */| 1.047339 |
Integer |/* 1.209668 */|/* 1.079858 */|
String |/* 1.242137 */| 1.049148 |
Mixed |/* 1.229072 */|/* 1.068569 */|
Associative |/* 1.206311 */| 1.053642 |
------------------|--------------|--------------|
Total |/* 7.307005 */| 6.368568 |
