php: '0' as a string with empty()

Question

I want a 0 to be considered as an integer and a \'0\' to be considered as a string but empty() considers the \'0\' as a string in the example below,

$var = \         


        

Answer 1

I always add to my codebase

function is_blank($value) {
    return empty($value) && !is_numeric($value);
}

and use it instead of empty(). It solves the issue of keeping zeros (int, float or string) as non-empty.

See http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.empty.php#103756 which was added May 2011.