string.IsNullOrEmpty(string) vs. string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(string)

Question

The best practice is selecting the most appropriate one.

.Net Framework 4.0 Beta 2 has a new IsNullOrWhiteSpace() method for strings which generalizes the IsNullOrEmpty() method to also include other white space besides empty string.

The term “white space” includes all characters that are not visible on screen. For example, space, line break, tab and empty string are white space characters*.

Reference : Here

For performance, IsNullOrWhiteSpace is not ideal but is good. The method calls will result in a small performance penalty. Further, the IsWhiteSpace method itself has some indirections that can be removed if you are not using Unicode data. As always, premature optimization may be evil, but it is also fun.

Reference : Here

Check the source code (Reference Source .NET Framework 4.6.2)

IsNullorEmpty

[Pure]
public static bool IsNullOrEmpty(String value) {
    return (value == null || value.Length == 0);
}

IsNullOrWhiteSpace

[Pure]
public static bool IsNullOrWhiteSpace(String value) {
    if (value == null) return true;

    for(int i = 0; i < value.Length; i++) {
        if(!Char.IsWhiteSpace(value[i])) return false;
    }

    return true;
}

Examples

string nullString = null;
string emptyString = "";
string whitespaceString = "    ";
string nonEmptyString = "abc123";

bool result;

result = String.IsNullOrEmpty(nullString);            // true
result = String.IsNullOrEmpty(emptyString);           // true
result = String.IsNullOrEmpty(whitespaceString);      // false
result = String.IsNullOrEmpty(nonEmptyString);        // false

result = String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(nullString);       // true
result = String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(emptyString);      // true
result = String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(whitespaceString); // true
result = String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(nonEmptyString);   // false

The differences in practice :

string testString = "";
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("IsNullOrEmpty : {0}", string.IsNullOrEmpty(testString)));
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("IsNullOrWhiteSpace : {0}", string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(testString)));
Console.ReadKey();

Result :
IsNullOrEmpty : True
IsNullOrWhiteSpace : True

**************************************************************
string testString = " MDS   ";

IsNullOrEmpty : False
IsNullOrWhiteSpace : False

**************************************************************
string testString = "   ";

IsNullOrEmpty : False
IsNullOrWhiteSpace : True

**************************************************************
string testString = string.Empty;

IsNullOrEmpty : True
IsNullOrWhiteSpace : True

**************************************************************
string testString = null;

IsNullOrEmpty : True
IsNullOrWhiteSpace : True

They are different functions. You should decide for your situation what do you need.

I don't consider using any of them as a bad practice. Most of the time IsNullOrEmpty() is enough. But you have the choice :)

Here is the actual implementation of both methods ( decompiled using dotPeek)

[TargetedPatchingOptOut("Performance critical to inline across NGen image boundaries")]
    public static bool IsNullOrEmpty(string value)
    {
      if (value != null)
        return value.Length == 0;
      else
        return true;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Indicates whether a specified string is null, empty, or consists only of white-space characters.
    /// </summary>
    /// 
    /// <returns>
    /// true if the <paramref name="value"/> parameter is null or <see cref="F:System.String.Empty"/>, or if <paramref name="value"/> consists exclusively of white-space characters.
    /// </returns>
    /// <param name="value">The string to test.</param>
    public static bool IsNullOrWhiteSpace(string value)
    {
      if (value == null)
        return true;
      for (int index = 0; index < value.Length; ++index)
      {
        if (!char.IsWhiteSpace(value[index]))
          return false;
      }
      return true;
    }