!empty() resulting true for value 0.0000

Question

I came across this situation, perhaps a logical error in the code.

This is my code

foreach ($options as $option) {

if (($option['max_value'] > 0) && $total_value <= $option['max_value']) {
        $selected_options[] = $option['option_id'];
        continue;
    }
    if (($option['min_value'] > 0) && $total_value >= $option['min_value']) {
        $selected_options[] = $option['option_id'];
    }
}

This works fine. But if i replace(this is what i did earlier, so the logical error)

if(($option['min_value'] > 0 ) ..... ) with

if(!empty($option['min_value']) .... ) same for checking max_value.

But the issue is only while checking min_value

Its treating 0.0000 to be not empty so i'm not getting the expected output. Can somebody please explain me what is wrong??

$options values are coming from database, i have 2 rows

1. min_value = 0.0000 max_value = 20.0000

2. min_value = 21.0000 max_value = 0.0000

Thanks!!

Thank You all!! Its a lesson learnt!!!

Answer 1

You must read manual about empty

0.0000 is not a number it is a string.

Answer 2

if(!empty($option['min_value']) .... ) will definitely treat it as non rempty.

According to the manual, empty() determine whether a variable is considered to be empty. A variable is considered empty if it does not exist or if its value equals FALSE.

0.0000 is a sequence of character which cannot be considered as empty.

Answer 3

because the value in the variable is extracted from database so the value will be treated as a string. And empty() will only return true if the value in the variable is 0.0 (float/numeric) or 0 (numeric) or '0' (string) so '0.0' (string) would be returned as false.

Answer 4

Just change type of float to int

empty((int)$model['product_cost']) this returns false even if the value is 0.0