It's a design choice, for better or worse. PHP has multiple functions used to check PHP variables with respect to their initialized values. Since a variable must have some value and PHP's value for "nothing" is null, you want: I am trying to make sure that 2 fields are filled before I insert them into my database. php_value session.auto_start 1 If you add the above line in the .htaccess file, that should start a session automatically in your PHP application. How to check whether a variable is empty in PHP. If a variable has been unset with unset(), it will no longer be set. I'm pretty sure it's really simple . Code language: PHP (php) Determine if a variable is set and is not NULL.. You can use the PHP empty() function to find out whether a variable is empty or not. Arrays in PHP: Use array() Function to create an array in PHP. There are three types of array supported in PHP: Indexed arrays: Arrays having a numeric index. The function returns a boolean value as the result of the output of the function. A variable is considered empty if it does not exist or if its value equals false. empty() is to check if a given variable is empty. Again if you pass multiple variables to the PHP isset function, then if all the variables are not null, the function returns a true value. PHP variables get initialised when they're first assigned to. The difference with isset() is, isset has NULL check enabled. PHP Assignment Operators. empty() function in PHP. Multidimensional arrays: It contains one or more array in particular array. I did a quick Google and found that checking if the variables are null wouldn't be the correct way of solving this situation because an "empty string" is still not null? using "empty" with multiple variables. Note: Why it is always good practice to declare an empty array and then push the items to that array? But, if the variable is not null and empty, it returns a true value. Anyway, any help would be appreciated. Back to the original question, " ... if variable is not empty, echo some html code. To create a variable you always have to assign something to it. PHP doesn't have an explicit statement to initialise variables, like Javascript's var. empty() does not generate a warning if the variable does not exist. Seems like folks are complicating this a bit. A variable is considered empty if it does not exist or if its value equals FALSE.. Let's try out the following example to understand how this function basically works: Associative arrays: Arrays having named keys. The basic assignment operator in PHP is "=". These functions are, isset() is to check if a variable is set with a value. Determine whether a variable is considered to be empty. Obviously I want all of those variables to be checked if they are empty or not. Basically, empty() function can be used to check a variable is empty or not in PHP. The PHP assignment operators are used with numeric values to write a value to a variable. Here we will learn what is an empty function and how to use this function. Topic: PHP / MySQL Prev|Next Answer: Use the PHP empty() function. It means that the left operand gets set to the value of the assignment expression on the right. On the other hand, if you don’t have access to the php.ini file, and you're using the Apache web server, you could also set this variable using the .htaccess file. Here the biggest advantage is we can pass data to a different site even running at different servers. ""I would like to display some html code if a variable is not empty, else I would like to display nothing. Passing variables with data between pages using URL There are different ways by which values of variables can be passed between pages.One of the ways is to use the URL to pass the values or data.