Testing Values

There are many ways to test a value in php, some of which can produce confusing results. What’s more, Laravel also offers a couple of helpers which can help us test php values. We’ll go over each method in turn and find out how to avoid some common pitfalls along the way.

Is Null

From the php documentation:

is_null() finds whether a variable is NULL.

In other words, is_null() returns:

• true if the value is null and
• false if the value is not null

is_null(null) // true
is_null(0) // false
is_null('')	// false
is_null([]) // false
is_null(true)	// false
is_null(false) // false
is_null(collect()) // false

Is Set

From the php documentation:

isset() determines if a value is set and is not NULL.

Unlike other methods described in this post, isset() can take multiple values and returns true only if all the parameters are set. Also unlike other methods, isset() requires a variable to be passed and will throw an error if you try to pass a value directly.

isset('value') // error

isset($unset)	// false

$value = null
isset($value)	// false

$value = 0
isset($value)	// true

$value = ''
isset($value)	// true

$value = []
isset($value)	// true

$value = true
isset($value)	// true

$value = false
isset($value)	// true

$value = collect()
isset($value)	// true

Notice that isset() returns false if null is passed, which can lead to some confusing results if you wanted to check whether a variable was initialised.

Empty

From the php documentation:

empty() determines whether a variable is empty.

empty() is a helper that is logically equivalent to !isset($var) || $var == false

empty(null) // true
empty(0) // true
empty('') // true
empty([]) // true
empty(true) // false
empty(false) // true	
empty(collect()) // false 

The empty() function returns a couple of counterintuitive results, notably for 0, true and false. Because empty() performs a == check, values that are logically equivalent to false are treated as ‘empty’. This can be confusing since you might think that empty implies that the method will return true if a variable contains a value, whereas this is only the case if that value is also falsey.

Another potential pitfall is the way that empty deals with arrays and collections (or other iterable objects). Whereas an array with no items is treated as ‘empty’ (true), a collection with no items in it is considered ‘not empty’ (false).

Blank

Laravel includes a helper method called blank.

blank(null) // true
blank(0) // false
blank('') // true
blank([]) // true
blank(true) // false
blank(false) // false
blank(collect()) // true
blank($unset) // error

This method tries to check if the value is truthy in a more intuitive way. One thing to note is that unlike empty() it will not check if the value is set and will throw an error if you try to pass an unset variable. On a positive note, it treats arrays and collections in the same way.

Blank makes the following checks before falling back to the empty() method:

• Check if the value is null
• Check if the value is an empty string
• Check if the value is numeric or boolean
• Check if the value is an countable instance

It might be helpful to see the method signature for the blank() helper.

Filled

Laravel also comes with a helper method called filled, which is the logical opposite of blank().

filled(null) // false
filled(0) // true
filled('') // false
filled([]) // false
filled(true) // true
filled(false) // true
filled(collect())	// false
filled($unset) // error

Looking into the code for filled() shows us that it is literally equivalent to !blank().

As you can see, it can be hard to know which tool to use. None of the methods described above are better that the other. It’s simply a case of using the right method for the right use case.

Here’s a handy table you can use to compare the results from each method.