isset
(PHP 4, PHP 5)
isset — Determine if a variable is set and is not NULL
Description
Determine if a variable is set and is not NULL.
If a variable has been unset with unset(), it will no longer be set. isset() will return FALSE if testing a variable that has been set to NULL. Also note that a NULL byte ("\0") is not equivalent to the PHP NULL constant.
If multiple parameters are supplied then isset() will return TRUE only if all of the parameters are set. Evaluation goes from left to right and stops as soon as an unset variable is encountered.
Parameters
- var
-
The variable to be checked.
- var
-
Another variable ..
- ...
-
Return Values
Returns TRUE if var exists and has value other than NULL, FALSE otherwise.
Examples
Example #1 isset() Examples
<?php
$var = '';
// This will evaluate to TRUE so the text will be printed.
if (isset($var)) {
echo "This var is set so I will print.";
}
// In the next examples we'll use var_dump to output
// the return value of isset().
$a = "test";
$b = "anothertest";
var_dump(isset($a)); // TRUE
var_dump(isset($a, $b)); // TRUE
unset ($a);
var_dump(isset($a)); // FALSE
var_dump(isset($a, $b)); // FALSE
$foo = NULL;
var_dump(isset($foo)); // FALSE
?>
This also work for elements in arrays:
<?php
$a = array ('test' => 1, 'hello' => NULL);
var_dump(isset($a['test'])); // TRUE
var_dump(isset($a['foo'])); // FALSE
var_dump(isset($a['hello'])); // FALSE
// The key 'hello' equals NULL so is considered unset
// If you want to check for NULL key values then try:
var_dump(array_key_exists('hello', $a)); // TRUE
?>
Notes
isset() only works with variables as passing anything else will result in a parse error. For checking if constants are set use the defined() function.
Note: Because this is a language construct and not a function, it cannot be called using variable functions
Note:
When using isset() on inaccessible object properties, the __isset overloading method will be called, if declared.
See Also
- empty() - Determine whether a variable is empty
- __isset
- unset() - Unset a given variable
- defined() - Checks whether a given named constant exists
- the type comparison tables
- array_key_exists() - Checks if the given key or index exists in the array
- is_null() - Finds whether a variable is NULL
- the error control @ operator