Check string for nil & empty

Question

Is there a way to check strings for nil and \"\" in Swift? In Rails, I can use blank() to check.

I currently have this, but i

Answer 1

Create a String class extension:

extension String
{   //  returns false if passed string is nil or empty
    static func isNilOrEmpty(_ string:String?) -> Bool
    {   if  string == nil                   { return true }
        return string!.isEmpty
    }
}// extension: String

Notice this will return TRUE if the string contains one or more blanks. To treat blank string as "empty", use...

return string!.trimmingCharacters(in: CharacterSet.whitespaces).isEmpty

... instead. This requires Foundation.

Use it thus...

if String.isNilOrEmpty("hello world") == true 
{   print("it's a string!")
}