I console.log("var = " + JSON.stringify(result.something));
I got var = null
but when I do
if(result.something !=null || result.something != ''){
console.log('enter')
}
it print enter also. I wonder why is that happening, I also tried result.something != 'null', it still go into the if statement.
Your variable is null, here's why:
1. (result.something !=null) : returns false
2. (result.something != '') : returns true
Since you've used an OR operator, program control is going to go inside the if block if either of the condition is true.
As your 2nd condition is evaluating to be true, it's going inside of the if block.
From javascript MDN:
null : "an empty value" i.e no object value present
null value is different from an empty string. So something like if(null ==== " ") will return false
your if statement always true because
the result.something is null AND it is not an empty string null != ''
:)
Related
There is two kind of JavaScript code for investigating empty/full variable:
if(variable == ''){}
if(!variable){}
I tested both of them, and I achieved identical result. Now I want to know, (first) are they equivalent? And (second) which one is more standard for checking empty/full variable?
var variable1 = 'string';
var variable2 = 12;
var variable3 = true;
if(variable1 == ''){alert('empty-one');}
if(variable2 == ''){alert('empty-one');}
if(variable3 == ''){alert('empty-one');}
if(!variable1){alert('empty-two');}
if(!variable2){alert('empty-two');}
if(!variable3){alert('empty-two');}
As you see, there is no alert.
First is not standard, it only works for defined empty string.
Other will work if value is not truthy ( means something meaningful)
e.g var a;
a == '' will give false result
! a will produce true
e.g. var a = null;
a == '', // false
! a // true
var a = false;
a == '' // fase
! a // true
var a = NaN
a == '' // false
! NaN // true
true == 'true' // false, Boolean true is first converted to number and then compared
0 == '' // true, string is first converted to integer and then compared
== uses The Abstract Equality Comparison Algorithm to compare two operands
For more detail visit http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/5.1/#sec-11.9.3
In javascript null,'',0,NaN,undefined consider falsey in javascript.
In one sense you can check empty both way
But your first code are checking is it ''
and your 2nd condition is checking is your value are one of them (null,'',0,NaN,undefined)
In my view your 2nd condition is better then first as i don't have to check null,'',0,NaN,undefined seperately
No they are not equivalent. In case first it checks whether the value of variable is equal to the empty string('') or not. So case first will be true iff variable's value is ''. But second case will be true for all the values which are falsey i.e. false, 0, '', null, undefined.
In my code, I have this if/else statement to deal with a situation in which the numbers and letters both return cont = false. I have tried running just this code, with the same result. Obviously, it should execute the code in the else statement. Does anyone have any ideas?
var input = prompt()
if (input == null || " ") {
//Cont determines whether or not to continue
console.log("cont = false");
var cont = false;
}else{
console.log("cont = true");
var cont = true;
}
Because that code is not how you check one input against two values.
if ( input == null || " " )
should be
if (input==null || input == " ")
input == null || " "
evaluates to (result of your comparison) || " ". Now since " " (a non-empty string) is a truthy value this always evaluates to true.
For order of evaluation -
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Operator_Precedence
Adding to the other replies which are all correct about the || operator and precedence.
Using == is not a good thing to do in most cases, not least because 0 == null etc - if you're checking if it's actually null or an empty string then something like this is safer:
if (input === null || input.trim() === "") {
...
This checks type as well as content, so won't be able to give false positives. though if input isn't a string it will complain.
Thank's so much! As a summary of all of the answers recieved so far:
The OR operator (||) is comparing input == null to " ", the latter of which always evaluates to true
=== is better than ==
Thanks again for all the help and support!
I'm trying to learn Node and have the function:
this.logMeIn = function(username,stream) {
if (username === null || username.length() < 1) {
stream.write("Invalid username, please try again:\n\r");
return false;
} else {
....etc
and I'm passing it
if (!client.loggedIn) {
if (client.logMeIn(String(data.match(/\S+/)),stream)) {
I've tried both == and ===, but I'm still getting errors as the username is not detecting that it is null, and username.length() fails on:
if (username === null || username.length() < 1) {
^
TypeError: Property 'length' of object null is not a function
I'm sure that Node won't evaluate the second part of the || in the if statement when the first part is true - but I fail to understand why the first part of the if statement is evaluating to false when username is a null object. Can someone help me understand what I've done wrong?
length is an attribute, not a function. Try username.length
You're passing String(data.match(/\S+/)) as username argument, so when data.match(/\S+/) is null, you get "null" not null for username, as:
String(null) === "null"
So you need to change your condition:
if( username === null || username === "null" || username.length < 1 )
If you require a non-empty string, you can do a simple "truthy" check that will work for null, undefined, '', etc:
if (username) { ... }
With that approach, you don't even need the .length check. Also, length is a property, not a method.
Edit: You have some funkiness going on. I think you need to start with how you're passing in your username - I don't think that your String(data.match(/\S+/)) logic is behaving the way that you're expecting it to (credit to #Engineer for spotting this).
Your match expression is going to return one or two types of values: null or an Array. In the case that it's null, as #Engineer pointed out, you end up passing in "null" as a string, which should resultantly pass your username check later on. You should consider revising this to:
if (!client.loggedIn) {
var matches = data.match(/\S+/);
if (client.logMeIn(matches ? matches[0] : '',stream)) {
Regarding .length being equal to 1 in all cases - that doesn't honestly make a lot of sense. I would recommend adding a lot of console.log() statements to try and figure out what's going on.
Try
if( username === null || username.toString().length < 1 )
I used if( username === null || username.length < 1 ) and it failed at length check.
Can you explain why the if condition doesn't work without the eval function:
var myBoolean= document.getElementById("someBoolean").value; //This is a 'false'
if(myBoolean)
{
alert(Your boolean is True); //This condition always getting executed even though myBoolean is false;
}
if(eval(myBoolean))
{
alert("You will never see this alert bcoz boolean is false");
}
In Javascript the following values are treated as false for conditionals:
false
null
undefined
The empty string ''
The number 0
The number NaN
Everything else is treated as true.
'false' is none of the above, so it's true.
The string 'false' evaluates to the boolean true
This is because it's not actually a boolean, it's a the string 'false'. When you convert a string to a boolean, '' is false and anything else is true.
You check if it's equal to the string 'false' (or 'true') or not.
var myBoolean = 'false'; // (string)
myBoolean = myBoolean !== 'false'; //false (boolean)
'false' == true, crazily enough because of JavaScript's implicit type coercion. Check out these other examples from Crockford's The Elements of JavaScript Style.
'' == '0' // false
0 == '' // true
0 == '0' // true
false == 'false' // false
false == '0' // true
false == undefined // false
false == null // false
null == undefined
// true
' \t\r\n ' == 0 // true
You could solve this particular problem by changing your code to something like
var myBoolean = document.getElementById("someBoolean").value === "true"
Also, it is almost always better to use !! and === rather than ! and ==
document.getElementById("someBoolean") does not return a boolean true/false it returns an element or undefined / null
you could reverse your logic and get the expected result:
if(!myBoolean)
{
alert('This element does not exist');
}
if(!eval(myBoolean))
{
alert("Do not know why you would ever want to do this");
// you could do typeof()
}
Try:
var myBoolean= document.getElementById("someBoolean").value; //This is a 'false'
if(myBoolean != "false")
{
alert(Your boolean is True); //This condition always getting executed even though myBoolean is false;
}
Like others have said, a string isn't a boolean value, so using it as though it was will give you a logical error.
A string IS a boolean truth value according to ECMA
var a = ""<br/>
a&&false //-> false<br/>
a||false //-> "" (truthy)<br/>
I want to try to do string call equivalent to the C# String.IsNullOrEmpty(string) in javascript. I looked online assuming that there was a simple call to make, but I could not find one.
For now I am using a if(string === "" || string === null) statement to cover it, but I would rather use a predefined method (I keep getting some instances that slip by for some reason)
What is the closest javascript (or jquery if then have one) call that would be equal?
You're overthinking. Null and empty string are both falsey values in JavaScript.
if(!theString) {
alert("the string is null or empty");
}
Falsey:
false
null
undefined
The empty string ''
The number 0
The number NaN
If, for whatever reason, you wanted to test only null and empty, you could do:
function isNullOrEmpty( s )
{
return ( s == null || s === "" );
}
Note: This will also catch undefined as #Raynos mentioned in the comments.
if (!string) {
// is emtpy
}
What is the best way to test for an empty string with jquery-out-of-the-box?
If you know that string is not numeric, this will work:
if (!string) {
.
.
.
You can create one Utility method which can be reused in many places such as:
function isNullOrEmpty(str){
var returnValue = false;
if ( !str
|| str == null
|| str === 'null'
|| str === ''
|| str === '{}'
|| str === 'undefined'
|| str.length === 0 ) {
returnValue = true;
}
return returnValue;
}
you can just do
if(!string)
{
//...
}
This will check string for undefined, null, and empty string.
To be clear, if(!theString){//...} where theString is an undeclared variable will throw an undefined error, not find it true. On the other hand if you have: if(!window.theString){//...} or var theString; if(!theString){//...} it will work as expected. In the case where a variable may not be declared (as opposed to being a property or simply not set), you need to use: if(typeof theString === 'undefined'){//...}
My preference is to create a prototype function that wraps it up for you.
Since the answer that is marked as correct contains a small error, here is my best try at coming up with a solution. I have two options, one that takes a string, the other takes a string or a number, since I assume many people are mixing strings and numbers in javascript.
Steps:
-If the object is null it is a null or empty string.
-If the type is not string (or number) it's string value is null or empty. NOTE: we might throw an exception here as well, depending on preferences.
-If the trimmed string value has a length that is small than 1 it is null or empty.
var stringIsNullOrEmpty = function(theString)
{
return theString == null || typeof theString != "string" || theString.trim().length < 1;
}
var stringableIsNullOrEmpty = function(theString)
{
if(theString == null) return true;
var type = typeof theString;
if(type != "string" && type != "number") return true;
return theString.toString().trim().length < 1;
}
you can say it by logic
Let say you have a variable name a strVal, to check if is null or empty
if (typeof (strVal) == 'string' && strVal.length > 0)
{
// is has a value and it is not null :)
}
else
{
//it is null or empty :(
}