It depends on what you mean by "empty". The most common pattern is to check to see if the variable is undefined. Many people also do a null check, for example: if (myVariable === undefined || myVariable === null)...
or, in a shorter form: if (myVariable || myVariable === null)...
This is a bigger question than you think. Variables can empty in a lot of ways. Kinda depends on what you need to know.
// quick and dirty will be true for '', null, undefined, 0, NaN and false.
if (!x)
// test for null OR undefined
if (x == null)
// test for undefined OR null
if (x == undefined)
// test for undefined
if (x === undefined)
// or safer test for undefined since the variable undefined can be set causing tests against it to fail.
if (typeof x == 'undefined')
// test for empty string
if (x === '')
// if you know its an array
if (x.length == 0)
// or
if (!x.length)
// BONUS test for empty object
var empty = true, fld;
for (fld in x) {
empty = false;
break;
}
isEmpty_.isEmpty(object)
Returns true if an enumerable object contains no values (no enumerable own-properties). For strings and array-like objects _.isEmpty checks if the length property is 0.
I see potential shortcomings in many solutions posted above, so I decided to compile my own. Note: it uses Array.prototype.some, check your browser support.
Solution below considers variable empty if one of the following is true:
JS thinks that variable is equal to false, which already covers many things like 0, "", [], and even [""] and [0]
Value is null or it's type is 'undefined'
It is an empty Object
It is an Object/Array consisting only of values that are empty themselves (i.e. broken down to primitives each part of it equals false). Checks drill recursively into Object/Array structure.
E.g.
/**
* Checks if value is empty. Deep-checks arrays and objects
* Note: isEmpty([]) == true, isEmpty({}) == true, isEmpty([{0:false},"",0]) == true, isEmpty({0:1}) == false
* @param value
* @returns {boolean}
*/
function isEmpty(value){
var isEmptyObject = function(a) {
if (typeof a.length === 'undefined') { // it's an Object, not an Array
var hasNonempty = Object.keys(a).some(function nonEmpty(element){
return !isEmpty(a[element]);
});
return hasNonempty ? false : isEmptyObject(Object.keys(a));
}
return !a.some(function nonEmpty(element) { // check if array is really not empty as JS thinks
return !isEmpty(element); // at least one element should be non-empty
});
};
return (
value == false
|| typeof value === 'undefined'
|| value == null
|| (typeof value === 'object' && isEmptyObject(value))
);
}
what am I missing if empty array... keyless object... falseness
const isEmpty = o => Array.isArray(o) && !o.join('').length || typeof o === 'object' && !Object.keys(o).length || !(+value);
Here's a simpler(short) solution to check for empty variables. This function checks if a variable is empty. The variable provided may contain mixed values (null, undefined, array, object, string, integer, function).
function empty(mixed_var) {
if (!mixed_var || mixed_var == '0') {
return true;
}
if (typeof mixed_var == 'object') {
for (var k in mixed_var) {
return false;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
// example 1: empty(null);
// returns 1: true
// example 2: empty(undefined);
// returns 2: true
// example 3: empty([]);
// returns 3: true
// example 4: empty({});
// returns 4: true
// example 5: empty(0);
// returns 5: true
// example 6: empty('0');
// returns 6: true
// example 7: empty(function(){});
// returns 7: false
typeof object === 'object' && Object.keys(object).length === 0) is indeed checking if an object is Empty. But did you know that Date in javascript are considered object also?
so if you do:
const shouldNotbeEmpty = new Date(Date.now())
isEmpty(shouldNotbeEmpty) // this will return true when it should not
my only way to figure it out to fix that was to check if the object is a Date instance:
typeof value === "object" && Object.keys(value).length === 0 && !value instanceof Date
so something like this:
const isObject = value => typeof value === "object" && Object.keys(value).length === 0
const isString = value => typeof value === "string" && value.trim().length === 0
const isEmpty = value => {
const isDate = value instanceof Date
return value === undefined || value === null || (isObject(value) && !isDate) || isString(value)
}
exports.isEmpty = isEmpty