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

Is use of string.IsNullOrEmpty(string) when checking a string considered as bad practice when there is string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(string) in .NET 4.0 and above?

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;
    }

It says it all IsNullOrEmpty() does not include white spacing while IsNullOrWhiteSpace() does!

IsNullOrEmpty() If string is:
-Null
-Empty

IsNullOrWhiteSpace() If string is:
-Null
-Empty
-Contains White Spaces Only

Check this out with IsNullOrEmpty and IsNullOrwhiteSpace

string sTestes = "I like sweat peaches";
    Stopwatch stopWatch = new Stopwatch();
    stopWatch.Start();
    for (int i = 0; i < 5000000; i++)
    {
        for (int z = 0; z < 500; z++)
        {
            var x = string.IsNullOrEmpty(sTestes);// OR string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace
        }
    }

    stopWatch.Stop();
    // Get the elapsed time as a TimeSpan value.
    TimeSpan ts = stopWatch.Elapsed;
    // Format and display the TimeSpan value. 
    string elapsedTime = String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}.{3:00}",
        ts.Hours, ts.Minutes, ts.Seconds,
        ts.Milliseconds / 10);
    Console.WriteLine("RunTime " + elapsedTime);
    Console.ReadLine();

You'll see that IsNullOrWhiteSpace is much slower :/

Be careful of escaped characters:

String.IsNullOrEmpty(""); //True
String.IsNullOrEmpty(null); //True
String.IsNullOrEmpty("   "); //False
String.IsNullOrEmpty("\n"); //False
String.IsNullOrEmpty("\t"); //False
String.IsNullOrEmpty("hello"); //False

and here:

String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace("");//True
String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(null);//True
String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace("   ");//True
String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace("\n");//True
String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace("\t");//True
String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace("hello");//False

If you apply Trim to the values passed to IsNullOrEmpty(), the results for the two methods will be the same.

As a matter of performance, IsNullOrWhiteSpace() would be faster.

string.IsNullOrEmpty(str) - if you'd like to check string value has been provided

string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(str) - basically this is already a sort of business logic implementation (i.e. why " " is bad, but something like "~~" is good).

My advice - do not mix business logic with technical checks. So, for example, string.IsNullOrEmpty is the best to use at the beginning of methods to check their input parameters.

What about this for a catch all...

if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(x.Trim())
{
}

This will trim all the spaces if they are there avoiding the performance penalty of IsWhiteSpace, which will enable the string to meet the "empty" condition if its not null.

I also think this is clearer and its generally good practise to trim strings anyway especially if you are putting them into a database or something.

In the .Net standard 2.0: > string.IsNullOrEmpty(): Indicates whether the specified string is null or an Empty string.

Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrEmpty(null));           // True
Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrEmpty(""));             // True
Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrEmpty(" "));            // False
Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrEmpty("  "));           // False

> string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(): Indicates whether a specified string is null, empty, or consists only of white-space characters.

Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(null));     // True
Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(""));       // True
Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(" "));      // True
Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace("  "));     // True