[thelist] PHP question... checking string length

[Matt Warden]

Ted,

On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:30:58 -0500, Theodore Serbinski
<stanson at gmail.com> wrote:
> Guys, got a quick question. In PHP, I usually test if a string is empty like so:
> 
> if ($myString=='') // do something
> 
> But I recently stumbled upon some code from a much more experienced
> PHP person test empty strings like so:
> 
> if (strlen($myString) == 0) // do something
> 
> Is there any difference/advantage to using one over the other? Only
> apparently one is using the first method should be marginally faster
> (no function call). Thanks!

Which one is the faster is questionable. Yes, the latter includes a
function call, but this function call is built in to PHP.

Your solution creates an extra string. Depending on how PHP handles
this, it could be slower or faster.

It's just a style issue, though. Any difference in execution time is
not even worth mentioning. HOWEVER, if you want to test it:

// store current time
$i=0;
while ( (strlen($myString) == 0) && i < 5000) i++;
// find time difference
and

// store current time
$i=0;
while ( ($myString == '') && $i < 5000) $i++;
// find time difference


-- 
Matt Warden
Miami University
Oxford, OH, USA
http://mattwarden.com


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