CODEWITHSUNDEEP
php
pi.
pi.

Reputation: 1471

Is there a better way of determining empty associative arrays in php 5.3?

The empty() function in php 5.3 does not work well for associative arrays. I have an associative array that could have some 30+ elements.

$arr = array(
             'one'=>kwara, 
             'two'=>osun,
             ...
             'thirty'=>lagos
            )

If the associative array is empty like so:

$arr = array(
             'one'=>'', 
             'two'=>'',
             ...
             'thirty'=>''
            )

and I need to check if the array is empty, the following will not work in php 5.3.

if(empty($arr))
{
  echo "array is empty<br />>";
}
else
{
  echo "array is NOT empty<br />";
}

and will return 'array is NOT empty'. I am aware that the behaviour is different in php 5.4 but my current platform is php 5.3.

To overcome this problem, I have used the following:

if(strlen(implode('',array_values($arr))) > 0)       
{

 echo "array is NOT empty<br />>";
}
else
{
  echo "array is empty<br />";
}

The question is: is there a better of achieving this in php 5.3?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 100

Answers (3)

lupatus
lupatus

Reputation: 4248

Empty will work only with really empty values, your array has keys assigned so its not empty. Your solution is probably best way to do what you want - its hard to say, you would need to make some benchmarks, it can be done in many other ways:

if (array_filter($arr) === array()) {}
// or
if (!implode('', $arr)) {}

Upvotes: 0

Kris
Kris

Reputation: 41867

Short answer: No

Longer answer: The array you are looking at is not empty at all, it contains a bunch of keys with zero length strings. Your solution is probably one of the shortest possible and readable. You may want to wrap it in a function of your own though.

Upvotes: 2

Petah
Petah

Reputation: 46060

Have you tried:

if (sizeof(array_filter($array)) === 0) // do your stuff

Also you original could be improved like:

if (implode($array) !== '') // do your stuff

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions