How to determine if an array has any elements or not?

Question

How do I find if an array has one or more elements?

I need to execute a block of code where the size of the array is greater than zero.

if ($result > 0) {
    // Here is the code body which I want to execute
} 
else {
    // Here is some other code
}

Answer 1

You can use the count() or sizeof() PHP functions:

if (sizeof($result) > 0) {
    echo "array size is greater than zero";
}
else {
    echo "array size is zero";
}

Or you can use:

if (count($result) > 0) {
    echo "array size is greater than zero";
}
else {
    echo "array size is zero";
}

Answer 2

count — Count all elements in an array, or something in an object

int count ( mixed $array_or_countable [, int $mode = COUNT_NORMAL ] )

Counts all elements in an array, or something in an object.

Example:

<?php
    $a[0] = 1;
    $a[1] = 3;
    $a[2] = 5;
    $result = count($a);
    // $result == 3

In your case, it is like:

if (count($array) > 0)
{
    // Execute some block of code here
}

Answer 3

You could avoid length retrieve and check using a simple foreach:

foreach($result as $key=>$value) {
    echo $value;
}

Answer 4

If you want to only check if the array is not empty, you should use empty() - it is much faster than count(), and it is also more readable:

if (!empty($result)) {
    // ...
} else {
    // ...
}

Answer 5

@Sajid Mehmood in PHP we have count() to count the length of an array, when count() returns 0 that means that array is empty

Let’s take an example for your understanding:

<?php
    $arr1 = array(1); // With one value which will give 1 count
    $arr2 = array();  // With no value which will give 0 count

    // Now I want that the array which has greater than 0 count should print other wise not so

    if (count($arr1)) {
        print_r($arr1);
    }
    else {
        echo "Sorry, array1 has 0 count";
    }

    if (count($arr2)) {
        print_r($arr2);
    }
    else {
        echo "Sorry, array2 has 0 count";
    }

Answer 6

Pro Tip:

If you are sure that:

1. the variable exists (isset) AND
2. the variable type is an array (is_array) ...might be true of all is_iterables, but I haven't researched that extension of the question scope.

Then you don't need to call any functions. An array with one or more elements has a boolean value of true. An array with no elements has a boolean value of false.

Code: (Demo)

var_export((bool)[]);
echo "\n";
var_export((bool)['not empty']);
echo "\n";
var_export((bool)[0]);
echo "\n";
var_export((bool)[null]);
echo "\n";
var_export((bool)[false]);
echo "\n";

$noElements = [];
if ($noElements) {
    echo 'not empty';
} else {
    echo 'empty';
}

Output:

false
true
true
true
true
empty