Checking for empty arrays: count vs empty

Question

This question on \'How to tell if a PHP array is empty\' had me thinking of this question

Is there a reason that count should be used instead of e

Answer 1

Sometimes using empty is a must. For example this code:

$myarray = array();

echo "myarray:"; var_dump($myarray); echo "
";
echo "case1 count: ".count($myarray)."
";
echo "case1 empty: ".empty($myarray)."
";

$glob = glob('sdfsdfdsf.txt');

echo "glob:"; var_dump($glob); echo "
";
echo "case2 count: ".count($glob)."
";
echo "case2 empty: ".empty($glob);

If you run this code like this: http://phpfiddle.org/main/code/g9x-uwi

You get this output:

myarray:array(0) { } 
case1 count: 0
case1 empty: 1

glob:bool(false) 
case2 count: 1
case2 empty: 1

So if you count the empty glob output you get wrong output. You should check for emptiness.

From glob documentation:

Returns an array containing the matched files/directories, an empty array if no file matched or FALSE on error.
Note: On some systems it is impossible to distinguish between empty match and an error.

Also check this question: Why count(false) return 1?