What is the best way to test for an empty string with jquery-out-of-the-box?

Question

What is the best way to test for an empty string with jquery-out-of-the-box, i.e. without plugins? I tried this.

But it did\'t work at least out-of-the-box. It woul

Answer 1

Try executing this in your browser console or in a node.js repl.

var string = ' ';
string ? true : false;
//-> true

string = '';
string ? true : false;
//-> false

Therefore, a simple branching construct will suffice for the test.

if(string) {
    // string is not empty
}

Answer 2

if (!a) {
  // is emtpy
}

To ignore white space for strings:

if (!a.trim()) {
    // is empty or whitespace
}

If you need legacy support (IE8-) for trim(), use $.trim or a polyfill.

Answer 3

if(!my_string){ 
// stuff 
}

and

if(my_string !== "")

if you want to accept null but reject empty

EDIT: woops, forgot your condition is if it IS empty

Answer 4

Based on David's answer I personally like to check the given object first if it is a string at all. Otherwise calling .trim() on a not existing object would throw an exception:

function isEmpty(value) {
  return typeof value == 'string' && !value.trim() || typeof value == 'undefined' || value === null;
}

Usage:

isEmpty(undefined); // true
isEmpty(null); // true
isEmpty(''); // true
isEmpty('foo'); // false
isEmpty(1); // false
isEmpty(0); // false