[php] Check whether an array is empty

I have the following code

<?php

$error = array();
$error['something'] = false;
$error['somethingelse'] = false;

if (!empty($error))
{
    echo 'Error';
}
else
{
    echo 'No errors';
}

?>

However, empty($error) still returns true, even though nothing is set.

What's not right?

However, empty($error) still returns true, even though nothing is set.

That's not how empty() works. According to the manual, it will return true on an empty array only. Anything else wouldn't make sense.

function empty() does not work for testing empty arrays! example:

$a=array("","");
if(empty($a)) echo "empty";
else echo "not empty"; //this case is true

a function is necessary:

function is_array_empty($a){
foreach($a as $elm)
if(!empty($elm)) return false;
return true;
}

ok, this is a very old question :) , but i found this thread searching for a solution and i didnt find a good one.

bye (sorry for my english)

hi array is one object so it null type or blank

   <?php
        if($error!=null)
            echo "array is blank or null or not array";
    //OR
       if(!empty($error))
           echo "array is blank or null or not array";
    //OR
     if(is_array($error))
           echo "array is blank or null or not array";
   ?>

PHP's built-in empty() function checks to see whether the variable is empty, null, false, or a representation of zero. It doesn't return true just because the value associated with an array entry is false, in this case the array has actual elements in it and that's all that's evaluated.

If you'd like to check whether a particular error condition is set to true in an associative array, you can use the array_keys() function to filter the keys that have their value set to true.

$set_errors = array_keys( $errors, true );

You can then use the empty() function to check whether this array is empty, simultaneously telling you whether there are errors and also which errors have occurred.

I can't replicate that (php 5.3.6):

php > $error = array();
php > $error['something'] = false;
php > $error['somethingelse'] = false;
php > var_dump(empty($error));
bool(false)

php > $error = array();
php > var_dump(empty($error));
bool(true)
php >

exactly where are you doing the empty() call that returns true?

From the PHP-documentation:

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

In PHP, even if the individual items within an array or properties of an object are empty, the array or object will not evaluate to empty using the empty($subject) function. In other words, cobbling together a bunch of data that individually tests as "empty" creates a composite that is non-empty. Use the following PHP function to determine if the items in an array or properties of an object are empty:

function functionallyEmpty($o)
{
  if (empty($o)) return true;
  else if (is_numeric($o)) return false;
  else if (is_string($o)) return !strlen(trim($o)); 
  else if (is_object($o)) return functionallyEmpty((array)$o);

  // If it's an array!
  foreach($o as $element) 
    if (functionallyEmpty($element)) continue; 
    else return false; 

  // all good.
  return true;
}

Example Usage:

$subject = array('', '', '');

empty($subject); // returns false
functionallyEmpty($subject); // returns true

class $Subject {
    a => '',
    b => array()
}

$theSubject = new Subject();

empty($theSubject); // returns false
functionallyEmpty($theSubject); // returns true

array with zero elements converts to false

http://php.net/manual/en/language.types.boolean.php

<?php
if(empty($myarray))
echo"true";
else
echo "false";
?>

You can also check it by doing.

if(count($array) > 0)
{
    echo 'Error';
}
else
{
    echo 'No Error';
}

Try to check it's size with sizeof if 0 no elements.