What is the proper way to test if a parameter is empty in a batch file?

Question

Use square brackets instead of quotation marks:

IF [%1] == [] GOTO MyLabel

Parentheses are insecure: only use square brackets.

You can use:

IF "%~1" == "" GOTO MyLabel

to strip the outer set of quotes. In general, this is a more reliable method than using square brackets because it will work even if the variable has spaces in it.

One of the best semi solutions is to copy %1 into a variable and then use delayed expansion, as delayedExp. is always safe against any content.

set "param1=%~1"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
if "!param1!"=="" ( echo it is empty )
rem ... or use the DEFINED keyword now
if defined param1 echo There is something

The advantage of this is that dealing with param1 is absolutly safe.

And the setting of param1 will work in many cases, like

test.bat hello"this is"a"test
test.bat you^&me

But it still fails with strange contents like

test.bat ^&"&

To be able to get a 100% correct answer for the existence

It detects if %1 is empty, but for some content it can't fetch the content.
This can be also be useful to distinguish between an empty %1 and one with "".
It uses the ability of the CALL command to fail without aborting the batch file.

@echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "arg1="
call set "arg1=%%1"

if defined arg1 goto :arg_exists

set "arg1=#"
call set "arg1=%%1"
if "!arg1!" EQU "#" (
    echo arg1 exists, but can't assigned to a variable
    REM Try to fetch it a second time without quotes
    (call set arg1=%%1)
    goto :arg_exists
)

echo arg1 is missing
exit /b

:arg_exists
echo arg1 exists, perhaps the content is '!arg1!'

If you want to be 100% bullet proof to fetch the content, you could read How to receive even the strangest command line parameters?

From IF /?:

If Command Extensions are enabled IF changes as follows:

IF [/I] string1 compare-op string2 command
IF CMDEXTVERSION number command
IF DEFINED variable command

......

The DEFINED conditional works just like EXISTS except it takes an environment variable name and returns true if the environment variable is defined.

Unfortunately I don't have enough reputation to comment or vote on the current answers to I've had to write my own.

Originally the OP's question said "variable" rather than "parameter", which got very confusing, especially as this was the number one link in google for searching how to test for blank variables. Since my original answer, Stephan has edited the original question to use the correct terminology, but rather than deleting my answer I decided to leave it to help clear up any confusion, especially in case google is still sending people here for variables too:

%1 IS NOT A VARABLE! IT IS A COMMAND LINE PARAMETER.

Very important distinction. A single percent sign with a number after it refers to a command line parameter not a variable.

Variables are set using the set command, and are recalled using 2 percent signs - one before and one after. For example %myvar%

To test for an empty variable you use the "if not defined" syntax (commands explicitly for variables do not require any percent signs), for example:

set myvar1=foo  
if not defined myvar1 echo You won't see this because %myvar1% is defined.  
if not defined myvar2 echo You will see this because %myvar2% isn't defined.

(If you want to test command line parameters then I recommend referring to jamesdlin's answer.)

Use "IF DEFINED variable command" to test variable in batch file.

But if you want to test batch parameters, try below codes to avoid tricky input (such as "1 2" or ab^>cd)

set tmp="%1"
if "%tmp:"=.%"==".." (
    echo empty
) else (
    echo not empty
)

I created this small batch script based on the answers here, as there are many valid ones. Feel free to add to this so long as you follow the same format:

REM Parameter-testing

Setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion EnableExtensions

IF NOT "%~1"=="" (echo Percent Tilde 1 failed with quotes) ELSE (echo SUCCESS)
IF NOT [%~1]==[] (echo Percent Tilde 1 failed with brackets) ELSE (echo SUCCESS)
IF NOT  "%1"=="" (echo Quotes one failed) ELSE (echo SUCCESS)
IF NOT [%1]==[] (echo Brackets one failed) ELSE (echo SUCCESS)
IF NOT "%1."=="." (echo Appended dot quotes one failed) ELSE (echo SUCCESS)
IF NOT [%1.]==[.] (echo Appended dot brackets one failed) ELSE (echo SUCCESS)

pause