Check string length in PHP

Question

I have a string that is 141 characters in length. Using the following code I have an if statement to return a message if the string is greater or less than 140.

libxml_use_internal_errors(TRUE); $dom = new DOMDocument(); $dom->loadHTMLFile($source); $xml = simplexml_import_dom($dom); libxml_use_internal_errors(FALSE); $message = $xml->xpath("//div[@class='contest']");  if (strlen($message) < 141) {    echo "There Are No Contests."; } elseif(strlen($message) > 142) {    echo "There is One Active Contest."; } 

I used var_dump on $message and it shows the string is [0]=> string(141). Here is my problem: When I change the numbers for the if statement to <130 and >131, it still returns the first message, although the string is greater than 131.

No matter what number I use less than 141 I always get "There Are No Contests." returned to me.

Answer 1

Try the common syntax instead:

if (strlen($message)<140) {     echo "less than 140"; } else     if (strlen($message)>140) {         echo "more than 140";     }     else {         echo "exactly 140";     } 

Answer 2

[0]=> string(141) means $message is an array so you should do strlen($message[0]) < 141 ...