Check whether an array is empty without using a loop?

Question

Is there any function available in PHP to check whether an array is empty or how can I do this without using loop?

For example: $b = array('key1' => '', 'key2' => '', 'key3' => '', 'key4' => '');

How can I check array $b contains empty values without using a loop?

Answer 1

Whether you use a loop or some array function, you're still looping through the array so keep it simple and just loop through the array:

function isEmpty($arr) {
  foreach ($arr as $k => $v) {
    if ($v) {
      return false;
    }
  }
  return true;
}

Depending on what you want to define as empty, you may want to only check for empty strings:

function isEmpty($arr) {
  foreach ($arr as $k => $v) {
    if ($v === '') {
      return false;
    }
  }
  return true;
}

Answer 2

if you want to check for empty strings '' you can use in_array

if(!in_array('', $array)) echo 'array doesn’t contain empty strings';
if(in_array('', $array)) echo 'array does contain at least one empty string';

you might also want to try array_filter with an empty callback method, and compare that to an empty array (or use empty()):

if(empty(array_filter($array))) echo 'array only contains values evaluating to false';

Answer 3

Simply put, no.

If you don't want to do a literal foreach/for/while, you can use array_walk.

Answer 4

Simple:

function allEmpty($array)
{
    return empty(array_filter($array));
}

function someEmpty($array)
{
    if ($array !== array_filter($array))
    {
     return true;
    }

    return false;
}

Answer 5

If that is the specific array you want to check (ie: it only has key=>values and empty is always key=>'') ...

$b = array('key1' => '', 'key2' => '', 'key3' => '', 'key4' => '');
$temp = array_flip($b);
if(count($temp) === 1 && empty($temp[0])){
    echo 'empty';
}

Otherwise you are going to have to use a loop... sorry.

Answer 6

I usually check it by using following condition:

if(is_array($array) and count($array)) {
 //  ... code here ...
}

That's all.