Check for empty array [duplicate]

Question

My array looks like this

Array ( [] => ) 

To me it is empty, and I am looking for a way to check that.

First thought:

if( empty($array) ){
    echo 'Array is empty!';
}

To the empty-function, my array is not empty. A 'real' empty array looks like this: Array().

Second thought:

if( $array[''] == '' ){
    echo 'Array is empty!';
}

This is true for my empty array, but throws an error with any other array that does not contain such an empty key-value pair.

Any ideas?

Var_dump of my array:

array(1) { [""]=> NULL } 

Answer 1

Quick workaround for you:

$array = array_filter($array);

if (empty($array)) {
   echo 'Array is empty!';
}

array_filter() function's default behavior will remove all values from array which are equal to null, 0, '' or false

EDIT 1:

In case you want to keep 0 you must use callback function. It will iterate over each value in the array passing them to the callback function. If the callback function returns true, the current value from array is returned into the result array.

function customElements($callback){
  return ($callback !== NULL && $callback !== FALSE && $callback !== '');
}
$array = array_filter($array, "customElements");
var_dump($array);

Usage:

$array = array_filter($array, "customElements");

if (empty($array)) {
   echo 'Array is empty!';
}

It will keep 0 now, just what you were asking about.

EDIT 2:

As it was offered by Amal Murali, you could also avoid using function name in the callback and directly declare it:

$array = array_filter($array, function($callback) { 
   return ($callback !== NULL && $callback !== FALSE && $callback !== ''); 
});

Answer 2

I don't know why you would want to have that array or what problem code generated it, but:

if(empty(array_filter($array))) {
    echo 'Array is empty!';
}

Obvious check:

if(empty($array) || (count($array) == 1 && isset($array['']) && empty($array['']))) {
    echo 'Array is empty!';
}

Answer 3

take a look at these calls:

 $a = Array(null => null);
 $x = (implode("", array_keys($a)));
 $y = (implode("", array_values($a)));

you can control data "emptyness" with them (keys, vals or both)

EDIT: this will return as empty:

$a = Array(null => false);

too, I guess this is a problem for you