How can I check for an empty/undefined/null string in JavaScript?

I saw this question, but I didn't see a JavaScript specific example. Is there a simple string.Empty available in JavaScript, or is it just a case of checking for ""?

If you just want to check whether there's a truthy value, you can do:

if (strValue) {
    //do something
}

If you need to check specifically for an empty string over null, I would think checking against "" is your best bet, using the === operator (so that you know that it is, in fact, a string you're comparing against).

if (strValue === "") {
    //...
}

For checking if a variable is falsey or if it has length attribute equal to zero (which for a string, means it is empty), I use:

function isEmpty(str) {
    return (!str || str.length === 0 );
}

_{(Note that strings aren't the only variables with a length attribute, arrays have them as well, for example.)}

For checking if a variable is falsey or if the string only contains whitespace or is empty, I use:

function isBlank(str) {
    return (!str || /^\s*$/.test(str));
}

If you want, you can monkey-patch the String prototype like this:

String.prototype.isEmpty = function() {
    // This doesn't work the same way as the isEmpty function used 
    // in the first example, it will return true for strings containing only whitespace
    return (this.length === 0 || !this.trim());
};
console.log("example".isEmpty());

_{Note that monkey-patching built-in types is controversial, as it can break code that depends on the existing structure of built-in types, for whatever reason.}

All the previous answers are good, but this will be even better. Use dual NOT operators (!!):

if (!!str) {
    // Some code here
}

Or use type casting:

if (Boolean(str)) {
    // Code here
}

Both do the same function. Typecast the variable to Boolean, where str is a variable.

• It returns false for null, undefined, 0, 000, "", false.

• It returns true for all string values other than the empty string (including strings like "0" and " ")

The closest thing you can get to str.Empty (with the precondition that str is a String) is:

if (!str.length) { ...

If you need to make sure that the string is not just a bunch of empty spaces (I'm assuming this is for form validation) you need to do a replace on the spaces.

if(str.replace(/\s/g,"") == ""){
}

I use:

function empty(e) {
  switch (e) {
    case "":
    case 0:
    case "0":
    case null:
    case false:
    case undefined:
      return true;
    default:
      return false;
  }
}

empty(null) // true
empty(0) // true
empty(7) // false
empty("") // true
empty((function() {
    return ""
})) // false

Performance

I perform tests on macOS v10.13.6 (High Sierra) for 18 chosen solutions. Solutions works slightly different (for corner-case input data) which was presented in the snippet below.

Conclusions

• the simple solutions based on !str,==,=== and length are fast for all browsers (A,B,C,G,I,J)
• the solutions based on the regular expression (test,replace) and charAt are slowest for all browsers (H,L,M,P)
• the solutions marked as fastest was fastest only for one test run - but in many runs it changes inside 'fast' solutions group

Details

In the below snippet I compare results of chosen 18 methods by use different input parameters

• "" "a" " "- empty string, string with letter and string with space
• [] {} f- array, object and function
• 0 1 NaN Infinity - numbers
• true false - Boolean
• null undefined

Not all tested methods support all input cases.

function A(str) {
  let r=1;
  if (!str)
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function B(str) {
  let r=1;
  if (str == "")
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function C(str) {
  let r=1;
  if (str === "")
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function D(str) {
  let r=1;
  if(!str || 0 === str.length)
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function E(str) {
  let r=1;
  if(!str || /^\s*$/.test(str))
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function F(str) {
  let r=1;
  if(!Boolean(str))
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function G(str) {
  let r=1;
  if(! ((typeof str != 'undefined') && str) )
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function H(str) {
  let r=1;
  if(!/\S/.test(str))
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function I(str) {
  let r=1;
  if (!str.length)
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function J(str) {
  let r=1;
  if(str.length <= 0)
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function K(str) {
  let r=1;
  if(str.length === 0 || !str.trim())
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function L(str) {
  let r=1;
  if ( str.replace(/\s/g,"") == "")
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function M(str) {
  let r=1;
  if((/^\s*$/).test(str))
    r=0;
  return r;
}


function N(str) {
  let r=1;
  if(!str || !str.trim().length)
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function O(str) {
  let r=1;
  if(!str || !str.trim())
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function P(str) {
  let r=1;
  if(!str.charAt(0))
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function Q(str) {
  let r=1;
  if(!str || (str.trim()==''))
    r=0;
  return r;
}

function R(str) {
  let r=1;
  if (typeof str == 'undefined' ||
      !str ||
      str.length === 0 ||
      str === "" ||
      !/[^\s]/.test(str) ||
      /^\s*$/.test(str) ||
      str.replace(/\s/g,"") === "")

    r=0;
  return r;
}




// --- TEST ---

console.log(                  '   ""  "a"  " " [] {} 0 1 NaN Infinity f true false null undefined ');
let log1 = (s,f)=> console.log(`${s}: ${f("")}   ${f("a")}    ${f(" ")}   ${f([])}  ${f({})}  ${f(0)} ${f(1)} ${f(NaN)}   ${f(Infinity)}        ${f(f)} ${f(true)}    ${f(false)}     ${f(null)}    ${f(undefined)}`);
let log2 = (s,f)=> console.log(`${s}: ${f("")}   ${f("a")}    ${f(" ")}   ${f([])}  ${f({})}  ${f(0)} ${f(1)} ${f(NaN)}   ${f(Infinity)}        ${f(f)} ${f(true)}    ${f(false)}`);
let log3 = (s,f)=> console.log(`${s}: ${f("")}   ${f("a")}    ${f(" ")}`);

log1('A', A);
log1('B', B);
log1('C', C);
log1('D', D);
log1('E', E);
log1('F', F);
log1('G', G);
log1('H', H);

log2('I', I);
log2('J', J);

log3('K', K);
log3('L', L);
log3('M', M);
log3('N', N);
log3('O', O);
log3('P', P);
log3('Q', Q);
log3('R', R);

And then for all methods I perform speed test case str = "" for browsers Chrome v78.0.0, Safari v13.0.4, and Firefox v71.0.0 - you can run tests on your machine here

You can use lodash: _.isEmpty(value).

It covers a lot of cases like {}, '', null, undefined, etc.

But it always returns true for Number type of JavaScript primitive data types like _.isEmpty(10) or _.isEmpty(Number.MAX_VALUE) both returns true.

Very generic "All-In-One" Function (not recommended though):

function is_empty(x)
{
    return (                                                           //don't put newline after return
        (typeof x == 'undefined')
              ||
        (x == null)
              ||
        (x == false)        //same as: !x
              ||
        (x.length == 0)
              ||
        (x == 0)            // note this line, you might not need this. 
              ||
        (x == "")
              ||
        (x.replace(/\s/g,"") == "")
              ||
        (!/[^\s]/.test(x))
              ||
        (/^\s*$/.test(x))
    );
}

However, I don't recommend to use that, because your target variable should be of specific type (i.e. string, or numeric, or object?), so apply the checks that are relative to that variable.

var s; // undefined
var s = ""; // ""
s.length // 0

There's nothing representing an empty string in JavaScript. Do a check against either length (if you know that the var will always be a string) or against ""

Try:

if (str && str.trim().length) {  
    //...
}

I would not worry too much about the most efficient method. Use what is most clear to your intention. For me that's usually strVar == "".

As per the comment from Constantin, if strVar could some how end up containing an integer 0 value, then that would indeed be one of those intention-clarifying situations.

You could also go with regular expressions:

if((/^\s*$/).test(str)) { }

Checks for strings that are either empty or filled with whitespace.

A lot of answers, and a lot of different possibilities!

Without a doubt for quick and simple implementation the winner is: if (!str.length) {...}

However, as many other examples are available. The best functional method to go about this, I would suggest:

function empty(str)
{
    if (typeof str == 'undefined' || !str || str.length === 0 || str === "" || !/[^\s]/.test(str) || /^\s*$/.test(str) || str.replace(/\s/g,"") === "")
        return true;
    else
        return false;
}

A bit excessive, I know.

1. check that var a; exist

2. trim out the false spaces in the value, then test for emptiness

    if ((a)&&(a.trim()!=''))
    {
      // if variable a is not empty do this 
    }
   

I usually use something like this,

if (!str.length) {
    // Do something
}

Also, in case you consider a whitespace filled string as "empty".

You can test it with this regular expression:

!/\S/.test(string); // Returns true if blank.

If one needs to detect not only empty but also blank strings, I'll add to Goral's answer:

function isEmpty(s){
    return !s.length;    
}

function isBlank(s){
    return isEmpty(s.trim());    
}

I use a combination, and the fastest checks are first.

function isBlank(pString) {
    if (!pString) {
        return true;
    }
    // Checks for a non-white space character
    // which I think [citation needed] is faster
    // than removing all the whitespace and checking
    // against an empty string
    return !/[^\s]+/.test(pString);
}

Starting with:

return (!value || value == undefined || value == "" || value.length == 0);

Looking at the last condition, if value == "", its length must be 0. Therefore drop it:

return (!value || value == undefined || value == "");

But wait! In JavaScript, an empty string is false. Therefore, drop value == "":

return (!value || value == undefined);

And !undefined is true, so that check isn't needed. So we have:

return (!value);

And we don't need parentheses:

return !value

I have not noticed an answer that takes into account the possibility of null characters in a string. For example, if we have a null character string:

var y = "\0"; // an empty string, but has a null character
(y === "") // false, testing against an empty string does not work
(y.length === 0) // false
(y) // true, this is also not expected
(y.match(/^[\s]*$/)) // false, again not wanted

To test its nullness one could do something like this:

String.prototype.isNull = function(){ 
  return Boolean(this.match(/^[\0]*$/)); 
}
...
"\0".isNull() // true

It works on a null string, and on an empty string and it is accessible for all strings. In addition, it could be expanded to contain other JavaScript empty or whitespace characters (i.e. nonbreaking space, byte order mark, line/paragraph separator, etc.).

Meanwhile we can have one function that checks for all 'empties' like null, undefined, '', ' ', {}, []. So I just wrote this.

var isEmpty = function(data) {
    if(typeof(data) === 'object'){
        if(JSON.stringify(data) === '{}' || JSON.stringify(data) === '[]'){
            return true;
        }else if(!data){
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }else if(typeof(data) === 'string'){
        if(!data.trim()){
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }else if(typeof(data) === 'undefined'){
        return true;
    }else{
        return false;
    }
}

Use cases and results.

console.log(isEmpty()); // true
console.log(isEmpty(null)); // true
console.log(isEmpty('')); // true
console.log(isEmpty('  ')); // true
console.log(isEmpty(undefined)); // true
console.log(isEmpty({})); // true
console.log(isEmpty([])); // true
console.log(isEmpty(0)); // false
console.log(isEmpty('Hey')); // false

I didn't see a good answer here (at least not an answer that fits for me)

So I decided to answer myself:

value === undefined || value === null || value === "";

You need to start checking if it's undefined. Otherwise your method can explode, and then you can check if it equals null or is equal to an empty string.

You cannot have !! or only if(value) since if you check 0 it's going to give you a false answer (0 is false).

With that said, wrap it up in a method like:

public static isEmpty(value: any): boolean { return value === undefined || value === null || value === ""; }

PS.: You don't need to check typeof, since it would explode and throw even before it enters the method

I did some research on what happens if you pass a non-string and non-empty/null value to a tester function. As many know, (0 == "") is true in JavaScript, but since 0 is a value and not empty or null, you may want to test for it.

The following two functions return true only for undefined, null, empty/whitespace values and false for everything else, such as numbers, Boolean, objects, expressions, etc.

function IsNullOrEmpty(value)
{
    return (value == null || value === "");
}
function IsNullOrWhiteSpace(value)
{
    return (value == null || !/\S/.test(value));
}

More complicated examples exists, but these are simple and give consistent results. There is no need to test for undefined, since it's included in (value == null) check. You may also mimic C# behaviour by adding them to String like this:

String.IsNullOrEmpty = function (value) { ... }

You do not want to put it in Strings prototype, because if the instance of the String-class is null, it will error:

String.prototype.IsNullOrEmpty = function (value) { ... }
var myvar = null;
if (1 == 2) { myvar = "OK"; } // Could be set
myvar.IsNullOrEmpty(); // Throws error

I tested with the following value array. You can loop it through to test your functions if in doubt.

// Helper items
var MyClass = function (b) { this.a = "Hello World!"; this.b = b; };
MyClass.prototype.hello = function () { if (this.b == null) { alert(this.a); } else { alert(this.b); } };
var z;
var arr = [
// 0: Explanation for printing, 1: actual value
    ['undefined', undefined],
    ['(var) z', z],
    ['null', null],
    ['empty', ''],
    ['space', ' '],
    ['tab', '\t'],
    ['newline', '\n'],
    ['carriage return', '\r'],
    ['"\\r\\n"', '\r\n'],
    ['"\\n\\r"', '\n\r'],
    ['" \\t \\n "', ' \t \n '],
    ['" txt \\t test \\n"', ' txt \t test \n'],
    ['"txt"', "txt"],
    ['"undefined"', 'undefined'],
    ['"null"', 'null'],
    ['"0"', '0'],
    ['"1"', '1'],
    ['"1.5"', '1.5'],
    ['"1,5"', '1,5'], // Valid number in some locales, not in JavaScript
    ['comma', ','],
    ['dot', '.'],
    ['".5"', '.5'],
    ['0', 0],
    ['0.0', 0.0],
    ['1', 1],
    ['1.5', 1.5],
    ['NaN', NaN],
    ['/\S/', /\S/],
    ['true', true],
    ['false', false],
    ['function, returns true', function () { return true; } ],
    ['function, returns false', function () { return false; } ],
    ['function, returns null', function () { return null; } ],
    ['function, returns string', function () { return "test"; } ],
    ['function, returns undefined', function () { } ],
    ['MyClass', MyClass],
    ['new MyClass', new MyClass()],
    ['empty object', {}],
    ['non-empty object', { a: "a", match: "bogus", test: "bogus"}],
    ['object with toString: string', { a: "a", match: "bogus", test: "bogus", toString: function () { return "test"; } }],
    ['object with toString: null', { a: "a", match: "bogus", test: "bogus", toString: function () { return null; } }]
];

Trimming whitespace with the null-coalescing operator:

if (!str?.trim()) {
  // do something...
}

All these answers are nice.

But I cannot be sure that variable is a string, doesn't contain only spaces (this is important for me), and can contain '0' (string).

My version:

function empty(str){
    return !str || !/[^\s]+/.test(str);
}

empty(null); // true
empty(0); // true
empty(7); // false
empty(""); // true
empty("0"); // false
empty("  "); // true

Sample on jsfiddle.

Try this:

export const isEmpty = string => (!string || !string.length);

if ((str?.trim()?.length || 0) > 0) {
   // str must not be any of:
   // undefined
   // null
   // ""
   // " " or just whitespace
}

Update: Since this answer is getting popular I thought I'd write a function form too:

const isNotNilOrWhitespace = input => (input?.trim()?.length || 0) > 0;

const isNilOrWhitespace = input => (input?.trim()?.length || 0) === 0;

Ignoring whitespace strings, you could use this to check for null, empty and undefined:

var obj = {};
(!!obj.str) // Returns false

obj.str = "";
(!!obj.str) // Returns false

obj.str = null;
(!!obj.str) // Returns false

It is concise and it works for undefined properties, although it's not the most readable.

There's no isEmpty() method, you have to check for the type and the length:

if (typeof test === 'string' && test.length === 0){
  ...

The type check is needed in order to avoid runtime errors when test is undefined or null.

Try this

str.value.length == 0

You can easily add it to native String object in JavaScript and reuse it over and over...
Something simple like below code can do the job for you if you want to check '' empty strings:

String.prototype.isEmpty = String.prototype.isEmpty || function() {
  return !(!!this.length);
}

Otherwise if you'd like to check both '' empty string and ' ' with space, you can do that by just adding trim(), something like the code below:

String.prototype.isEmpty = String.prototype.isEmpty || function() {
   return !(!!this.trim().length);
}

and you can call it this way:

''.isEmpty(); //return true
'alireza'.isEmpty(); //return false

I usually use something like:

if (str == "") {
     //Do Something
}
else {
     //Do Something Else
}

Don't assume that the variable you check is a string. Don't assume that if this var has a length, then it's a string.

The thing is: think carefully about what your app must do and can accept. Build something robust.

If your method / function should only process a non empty string then test if the argument is a non empty string and don't do some 'trick'.

As an example of something that will explode if you follow some advices here not carefully.

var getLastChar = function (str) {
if (str.length > 0)
return str.charAt(str.length - 1)
}




getLastChar('hello')
=> "o"




getLastChar([0,1,2,3])
=> TypeError: Object [object Array] has no method 'charAt'

getLastChar([0,1,2,3])
=> TypeError: Object [object Array] has no method 'charAt'

So, I'd stick with

if (myVar === '')
...

Lots of useful information here, but in my opinion, one of the most important elements was not addressed.

null, undefined, and "" are all falsy.

When evaluating for an empty string, it's often because you need to replace it with something else.

In which case, you can expect the following behavior.

var a = ""
var b = null
var c = undefined

console.log(a || "falsy string provided") // prints ->"falsy string provided"
console.log(b || "falsy string provided") // prints ->"falsy string provided"
console.log(c || "falsy string provided") // prints ->"falsy string provided"

With that in mind, a method or function that can return whether or not a string is "", null, or undefined (an invalid string) versus a valid string is as simple as this:

const validStr = (str) => str ? true : false

validStr(undefined) // returns false
validStr(null) // returns false
validStr("") // returns false
validStr("My String") // returns true

I hope that's helpful.

You should always check for the type too, since JavaScript is a duck typed language, so you may not know when and how the data changed in the middle of the process. So, here's the better solution:

    let undefinedStr;
    if (!undefinedStr) {
      console.log("String is undefined");
    }
    
    let emptyStr = "";
    if (!emptyStr) {
      console.log("String is empty");
    }
    
    let nullStr = null;
    if (!nullStr) {
      console.log("String is null");
    }

You can able to validate following ways and understand the difference.

var j = undefined; console.log((typeof j == 'undefined') ? "true":"false"); var j = null; console.log((j == null) ? "true":"false"); var j = ""; console.log((!j) ? "true":"false"); var j = "Hi"; console.log((!j) ? "true":"false");

Try this code :

function isEmpty(strValue)
{
      // Test whether strValue is empty
    if (!strValue || strValue.trim() === "" || (strValue.trim()).length === 0) {
        //do something
    }
}

function tell()
{
    var pass = document.getElementById('pasword').value;
    var plen = pass.length;

    // Now you can check if your string is empty as like
    if(plen==0)
    {
        alert('empty');
    }
    else
    {
        alert('you entered something');
    }
}

<input type='text' id='pasword' />

This is also a generic way to check if field is empty.

I prefer to use not blank test instead of blank

function isNotBlank(str) {
   return (str && /^\s*$/.test(str));
}

The Underscore.js JavaScript library, http://underscorejs.org/, provides a very useful _.isEmpty() function for checking for empty strings and other empty objects.

Reference: http://underscorejs.org/#isEmpty

> isEmpty _.isEmpty(object)
Returns true if an enumerable object contains no values (no enumerable own-properties). For strings and array-like objects _.isEmpty checks if the length property is 0.

> _.isEmpty([1, 2, 3]);
=> false

>_.isEmpty({});
=> true

Other very useful Underscore.js functions include:

• http://underscorejs.org/#isNull _.isNull(object)
• http://underscorejs.org/#isUndefined
• _.isUndefined(value)
• http://underscorejs.org/#has _.has(object, key)

The following regular expression is another solution, that can be used for null, empty or undefined string.

(/(null|undefined|^$)/).test(null)

I added this solution, because it can be extended further to check empty or some value like as follow. The following regular expression is checking either string can be empty null undefined or it has integers only.

(/(null|undefined|^$|^\d+$)/).test()

It's a good idea too to check that you are not trying to pass an undefined term.

function TestMe() {
  if((typeof str != 'undefined') && str) {
    alert(str);
  }
 };

TestMe();

var str = 'hello';

TestMe();

I usually run into the case where I want to do something when a string attribute for an object instance is not empty. Which is fine, except that attribute is not always present.

You can check this using the typeof operator along with the length method.

const isNonEmptyString = (value) => typeof(value) == 'string' && value.length > 0

edited as per @kip2 suggestion.

This is falsy value. Falsy Values

The first solution:

const str = "";
return str || "Hello"

The second solution:

const str = "";
return (!!str) || "Hello"; // !!str is Boolean

The third solution:

const str = "";
return (+str) || "Hello"; // !!str is Boolean

An alternative way, but I believe bdukes's answer is best.

var myString = 'hello'; 
if(myString.charAt(0)){
    alert('no empty');
}
alert('empty');

The Ultimate and shortest variant of isBlank Function:

/**
 * Will return:
 * False for: for all strings with chars
 * True for: false, null, undefined, 0, 0.0, "", " ".
 *
 * @param str
 * @returns {boolean}
 */
function isBlank(str){
    return (!!!str || /^\s*$/.test(str));
}

// tests
console.log("isBlank TRUE variants:");
console.log(isBlank(false));
console.log(isBlank(undefined));
console.log(isBlank(null));
console.log(isBlank(0));
console.log(isBlank(0.0));
console.log(isBlank(""));
console.log(isBlank(" "));

console.log("isBlank FALSE variants:");
console.log(isBlank("0"));
console.log(isBlank("0.0"));
console.log(isBlank(" 0"));
console.log(isBlank("0 "));
console.log(isBlank("Test string"));
console.log(isBlank("true"));
console.log(isBlank("false"));
console.log(isBlank("null"));
console.log(isBlank("undefined"));

Well, the simplest function to check this is...

const checkEmpty = string => (string.trim() === "") || !string.trim();

Usage:

checkEmpty(""); // returns true.
checkEmpty("mystr"); // returns false.

It's that dead simple. :)

var x ="  ";
var patt = /^\s*$/g;
isBlank = patt.test(x);
alert(isBlank); // Is it blank or not??
x = x.replace(/\s*/g, ""); // Another way of replacing blanks with ""
if (x===""){
    alert("ya it is blank")
}

Here's some custom functions I use for handling this. Along with examples of how the code runs.

const v1 = 0
const v2 = '4'
const v2e = undefined
const v2e2 = null
const v3 = [1, 2, 3, 4]
const v3e = []
const v4 = true
const v4e = false
const v5 = {
  test: 'value'
}
const v5e = {}
const v6 = 'NotEmpty'
const v6e = ''

function isNumeric(n) {
  return !isNaN(parseFloat(n)) && isFinite(n)
}

function isEmpty(v, zeroIsEmpty = false) {
  /**
   * When doing a typeof check, null will always return "object" so we filter that out first
   * @see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/typeof#typeof_null
   */
  if (v === null) {
    return true
  }

  if (v === true) {
    return false
  }

  if (typeof v === 'object') {
    return !Object.keys(v).length
  }

  if (isNumeric(v)) {
    return zeroIsEmpty ? parseFloat(v) === 0 : false
  }

  return !v || !v.length || v.length < 1
}

console.log(isEmpty(v1), isEmpty(v1, true))
console.log(isEmpty(v2), isEmpty(v2e), isEmpty(v2e))
console.log(isEmpty(v3), isEmpty(v3e))
console.log(isEmpty(v4), isEmpty(v4e))
console.log(isEmpty(v5), isEmpty(v5e))
console.log(isEmpty(v6), isEmpty(v6e))

Also for reference, here's the source for lodash isEmpty: https://github.com/lodash/lodash/blob/master/isEmpty.js

To check if it is empty:

var str = "Hello World!";
if(str === ''){alert("THE string str is EMPTY");}

To check if it is of type string:

var str = "Hello World!";
if(typeof(str) === 'string'){alert("This is a String");}