What is the difference between isset and empty in PHP?
The isset function and the empty function are both used to determine if a variable exists or is empty, but there are some differences between the two.
- isset function:
- The isset function is used to check if a variable exists and is not null. It returns true if the variable exists and is not null, otherwise it returns false.
- The isset function can accept multiple arguments at once, and will return false if any of them are missing or null.
- empty function:
- The empty function is used to check if a variable is empty. It returns true if the variable is one of the following conditions, otherwise it returns false:
– The variable is 0 or the string “0”;
– The variable is an empty string (“”);
– The variable is false;
– The variable is an empty array (array());
– The variable is null;
– The variable is undefined.
In conclusion:
- The isset function checks if a variable exists and is not null.
- The empty function is used to determine if a variable is empty.
- The isset function can check multiple variables, while the empty function can only check one variable.
- The empty function will return true for both 0 and the string “0”, while the isset function will return false.