Given two arrays myArray1 and myArray2, which may be null, how can I output a Boolean which tells me if at least one array is non-empty?
Assuming that I have the following variables:
myArray1 = ["one", "two", "three"]; //-> non-empty array
myArray2 = null; //-> not an array (in my case this happens from .match() returning no results)
I want an expression, such that myArray1 && myArray2 will be FALSE, but myArray1 || myArray2 will be TRUE.
I did look through other relevant Stack Overflow questions (see an abridged list below), but since I still struggled to figure out the solution, I thought I would post it as a separate question since answers might also benefit others.
The common way of testing for empty arrays is:
myBooleanOr = (myArray1.length || myArray2.length); //3
myBooleanAnd = (myArray1.length && myArray2.length); //Error
This works if both variables are arrays, but in this case, the second one will throw up Error: cannot read property length of 'null'. Using the Boolean() function does not solve the problem since the following also throws up the same error:
myBooleanAnd = (Boolean(myArray1.length) && Boolean(myArray2.length)); //error
A solution for testing empty arrays which was accepted in several Stack Overflow questions is to use typeof myArray !== "undefined", but that still does not solve the problem, because neither of the arrays match "undefined", so myBooleanAnd will still throw up an error:
var bool = (typeof myArray1 !== "undefined"); //true
var bool = (typeof myArray2 !== "undefined"); //true
var myBooleanAnd = ((typeof myArray1 !== "undefined" && myArray1.length) || (typeof myArray2 !== "undefined" && myArray2.length)); //Error: cannot read property length of null
Comparing the arrays against [], which also seems intuitive, also doesn't work, because neither of the arrays match []:
var bool = (myArray1 !== []); //true
var bool = (myArray2 !== []); //true
Other relevant posts
A number of other questions on Stack Overflow deal with testing for empty Javascript arrays, including:
Testing for empty arrays: Check if array is empty or exists
Testing for empty arrays (jQuery): Check if array is empty or null
Relative advantages of methods for testing empty arrays: Testing for an empty array
Testing for empty objects: How do I test for an empty JavaScript object?
And there are also questions about the truth value of empty arrays in Javascript:
JavaScript: empty array, [ ] evaluates to true in conditional structures. Why is this?
UPDATE
I have corrected the following errors posted in the original question (thanks to those who pointed them out). I am listing them here since they might also be helpful to others:
==! changed to !==
typeof x === undefined, changed to typeof x === "undefined"
I would suggest using a helper function to determine if a single array is non-empty, and then use that twice. This is simple and straightforward:
function isNonEmptyArray(arr) {
return !!(Array.isArray(arr) && arr.length);
}
var myBooleanAnd = isNonEmptyArray(myArray1) && isNonEmptyArray(myArray2);
var myBooleanOr = isNonEmptyArray(myArray1) || isNonEmptyArray(myArray2);
Ok, so, there're a bunch of errors in the code examples, i'll try to to explain them all:
myBooleanOr = (myArray1.length || myArray2.length); //3
myBooleanAnd = (myArray1.length && myArray2.length); //Error
Here, the first line returns the first truthy value it encounters. Since myArray1 has a length > 0, it returns that value and never evaluates the second part of the condition, that's why you're not getting the error. Swap the checks and it will break.
The second line combines the two values to give a result, so it will always give an error when one of the two variables are null.
var bool = (typeof myArray1 === undefined); //false
typeof returns a string, if you compare it to the undefined constant it will always be false, the correct statement is typeof myArray1 === "undefined" as written in most of the posts you linked
var bool = (myArray2 ==! null);
the "strictly not equal" operator is !== and NOT ==!. You're doing a different operation and that's why you get surprising results.
Putting the right spaces in the syntax, this is your code var bool = (myArray2 == !null);
So you boolean-flip the value of null, which is falsy by nature, getting true, and then compare if myArray2 is loosely-equal to true ... since myArray2 is null, and that is falsy as we said, the comparison gives back a false.
That said, for the solution to the question, I'd propose a slightly longer syntax that is more explicit, clear to understand, and you can scale to check how many arrays you like without adding more complexity:
var myArray1 = [1,2,3]
var myArray2 = null
var arrays = [myArray1, myArray2]
var oneNotEmpty = arrays.some( a => typeof a != "undefined" && a != null && a.length > 0)
console.log("At least one array non-empty?", oneNotEmpty)
You could use isArray to check something is an array or not. Most modern browsers supports it. https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/isArray
And then you can combine isArray and array's length to check if something is a valid non empty array or not.
function isOneNotEmpty(arrayOne, arrayTwo){
return (Array.isArray(arrayOne)? arrayOne.length > 0 : false) || (Array.isArray(arrayTwo)? arrayOne.length > 0 : false)
}
console.log(isOneNotEmpty([],null));
console.log(isOneNotEmpty([1,2,3,4],null));
console.log(isOneNotEmpty([3,4,5],[1]));
Testing for an array is simple enough:
var blnIsPopulatedArray = (myArray != null
&& typeof myArray == "object"
&& typeof myArray.length == "number"
&& myArray.length > 0);
Will return false if 'myArray' isn't an array with at least one item, or true if it is an array with at least one item.
One solution is the following (with or without Boolean()):
Using Array.isArray() and array.length:
var myBooleanAnd = Boolean(Array.isArray(myArray2) && myArray2.length) && Boolean(Array.isArray(myArray1) && myArray1.length) ; //false -> OK
var myBooleanOr = Boolean(Array.isArray(myArray2) && myArray2.length) || Boolean(Array.isArray(myArray1) && myArray1.length) ; //true -> OK
It is also possible to use myArray1 !== null instead of Array.isArray(myArray1), but since the latter is a more specific test, the broader Array.isArray() method seems preferable.
UPDATE
I had previously suggested using the following:
var myBooleanAnd = Boolean(myArray1 && myArray2); //returns false -> OK
var myBooleanOr = Boolean(myArray1 || myArray2); //returns true -> OK
but since, as pointed out by #JLRishe, the following expression also returns TRUE, this is not a safe solution, since it will only work in situations where the arrays can never be empty.
var bool = Boolean([] && []); //returns true -> false positive
function arrayIsEmpty(array) {
if (!Array.isArray(array)) {
return false;
}
if (array.length == 0) {
return true;
}
}
Is there any difference between the below statements:
if(newValue && newValue != '') and
if(newValue != '')
I have observed expression 1 in many scripts but always got confused.
Please assist!
if(newValue && newValue != '').
This guards against a value of null or undefined.
Out of the possible '', 0, false, undefined and null, only the last two are not equal to '' (using !=), requiring the extra condition.
console.log(null && null != '') // null -> falsy
console.log(null != '') // truthy
var undef = void 0;
console.log(undef && undef != '') // undefined -> falsy
console.log(undef != '') // truthy
Answer is no,
1) for (newValue && newValue != ''),it checks whether newValue exist(non false values) and its not empty
2) for if(newValue != ''),it only checks whether newValue is not empty
Just one more thin I thought worth adding to the answers already posted.
As you, the OP, say: you've seen the first expression in existing code many times, so you've probably seen things like this:
if (foo && foo.bar)
{
foo.bar();
}
In this case, this is to avoid errors in certain browsers. In most modern browsers accessing somehting like localStorage.doesNotExist won't raise errors, but not all browsers support this so we: first check if the localStorage object exists, and if so, if the property can be resolved to a non-falsy value.
The same logic applies to methods of objects, that may be different in various browsers:
var domElement = document.getElementById('foobar');//might not exist, though
if (domElement && domElement.addEventListener)
{//does element exist && does it have a method called addEventListener
domElement.addEventListener('click', functionRef, false);
}
else if (domElement && domElement.attachEvent)
{
domElement.attachEvent('onclick', functionRef);
}
if you were to omit the first domElement in the if statement, and simply write domElement.addEventListener, that could be the same as writing null.addEventListener which throws a TypeError (because you're trying to access a property on a primitive value)
If Not (oResponse.selectSingleNode("BigGroupType") Is Nothing) Then
End If
I need to convert this to javascript. Is that enough to check null?
This was my lead's answer, plz verify this,
if(typeof $(data).find("BigGroupType").text() != "undefined" && $(data).find("BigGroupType").text() != null) {
}
JavaScript has two values which mean "nothing", undefined and null. undefined has a much stronger "nothing" meaning than null because it is the default value of every variable. No variable can be null unless it is set to null, but variables are undefined by default.
var x;
console.log(x === undefined); // => true
var X = { foo: 'bar' };
console.log(X.baz); // => undefined
If you want to check to see if something is undefined, you should use === because == isn't good enough to distinguish it from null.
var x = null;
console.log(x == undefined); // => true
console.log(x === undefined); // => false
However, this can be useful because sometimes you want to know if something is undefined or null, so you can just do if (value == null) to test if it is either.
Finally, if you want to test whether a variable even exists in scope, you can use typeof. This can be helpful when testing for built-ins which may not exist in older browsers, such as JSON.
if (typeof JSON == 'undefined') {
// Either no variable named JSON exists, or it exists and
// its value is undefined.
}
You need to check for both null and undefined, this implicitly does so
if( oResponse.selectSingleNode("BigGroupType") != null ) {
}
It is the equivalent of:
var node = oResponse.selectSingleNode("BigGroupType");
if( node !== null &&
node !== void 0 ) {
}
void 0 being a bulletproof expression to get undefined
In JavaScript equvalent for Nothing is undefined
if(oResponse.selectSingleNode("BigGroupType") != undefined){
}
This logic:
If Not (oResponse.selectSingleNode("BigGroupType") Is Nothing)
Can be written like this in JavaScript:
if (typeof oResponse.selectSingleNode("BigGroupType") != 'undefined')
Nothing would equal undefined, but checking against undefined is not recommended for several reasons, it’s generally safer to use typeof.
However, if the selectSingleNode can return other falsy values such as null, it’s probably OK to just do a simple check if it is truthy:
if (oResponse.selectSingleNode("BigGroupType"))
JavaScript:-
(document.getElementById(“BigGroupType”) == undefined) // Returns true
JQuery:-
($(“#BigGroupType”).val() === “undefined”) // Returns true
Note in above examples undefined is a keyword in JavaScript, where as in JQuery it is just a string.
I am using Y.one(selector).getAttribute('value'); to return the value on a page and I am having trouble dealing with cases where value="".
var check_value = Y.one(selector).getAttribute('value');
if (check_value != undefined || check_value != null || check_value != "") {
alert(check_value);
}
With all of these checks I am getting an empty alert box when the value of the element I am looking at is "". In this case since I know the value I am looking for is a number I can change the check to just look for a number > 0 and have it work but I was wondering if anyone knew of a method to check for no value for cases where I was not dealing with numeric data.
if (check_value >0) {
alert(check_value);
}
This method does work in my case.
Why don't you just check for 'truthiness' instead?
if (check_value) {
alert(check_value);
}
It's basically the same as your (intended) check, I suppose. And if you need to check for 0 (a Number), just use this:
if (check_value || check_value === 0) {
...
}
If it is an empty string, then it isn't undefined and it isn't null. Since you check if it is not undefined or not null or not an empty string, then it will pass.
Use && not ||
You might look at Y.Lang.isValue()
http://yuilibrary.com/yui/docs/api/classes/Lang.html#method_isValue
Look at the logic in plain english check_value != undefined || check_value != null || check_value != "" if it's undefined or null or "", if it's null it's not undefined, if it's blank it's not null, so everything gets through; you're looking for a logical AND instead of OR
try this:
var check_value = Y.one(selector).getAttribute('value');
if (check_value != undefined && check_value != null && check_value != "") {
alert(check_value);
}
You're seeing the alert because your if statement has OR (||) clauses. In the case that the value attribute is an empty string, the last condition (check_value != "") should fail. However, since "" is not equal to undefined the first condition has already returned true, the if statements test passes (it won't evaluate the other conditions because it doesn't need to) and the if block is executed.
I suspect you actually wanted to use AND (&&) instead.
We are frequently using the following code pattern in our JavaScript code
if (typeof(some_variable) != 'undefined' && some_variable != null)
{
// Do something with some_variable
}
Is there a less verbose way of checking that has the same effect?
According to some forums and literature saying simply the following should have the same effect.
if (some_variable)
{
// Do something with some_variable
}
Unfortunately, Firebug evaluates such a statement as error on runtime when some_variable is undefined, whereas the first one is just fine for it. Is this only an (unwanted) behavior of Firebug or is there really some difference between those two ways?
I think the most efficient way to test for "value is null or undefined" is
if ( some_variable == null ){
// some_variable is either null or undefined
}
So these two lines are equivalent:
if ( typeof(some_variable) !== "undefined" && some_variable !== null ) {}
if ( some_variable != null ) {}
Note 1
As mentioned in the question, the short variant requires that some_variable has been declared, otherwise a ReferenceError will be thrown. However in many use cases you can assume that this is safe:
check for optional arguments:
function(foo){
if( foo == null ) {...}
check for properties on an existing object
if(my_obj.foo == null) {...}
On the other hand typeof can deal with undeclared global variables (simply returns undefined). Yet these cases should be reduced to a minimum for good reasons, as Alsciende explained.
Note 2
This - even shorter - variant is not equivalent:
if ( !some_variable ) {
// some_variable is either null, undefined, 0, NaN, false, or an empty string
}
so
if ( some_variable ) {
// we don't get here if some_variable is null, undefined, 0, NaN, false, or ""
}
Note 3
In general it is recommended to use === instead of ==.
The proposed solution is an exception to this rule. The JSHint syntax checker even provides the eqnull option for this reason.
From the jQuery style guide:
Strict equality checks (===) should be used in favor of ==. The only
exception is when checking for undefined and null by way of null.
// Check for both undefined and null values, for some important reason.
undefOrNull == null;
EDIT 2021-03:
Nowadays most browsers
support the Nullish coalescing operator (??)
and the Logical nullish assignment (??=), which allows a more concise way to
assign a default value if a variable is null or undefined, for example:
if (a.speed == null) {
// Set default if null or undefined
a.speed = 42;
}
can be written as any of these forms
a.speed ??= 42;
a.speed ?? a.speed = 42;
a.speed = a.speed ?? 42;
You have to differentiate between cases:
Variables can be undefined or undeclared. You'll get an error if you access an undeclared variable in any context other than typeof.
if(typeof someUndeclaredVar == whatever) // works
if(someUndeclaredVar) // throws error
A variable that has been declared but not initialized is undefined.
let foo;
if (foo) //evaluates to false because foo === undefined
Undefined properties , like someExistingObj.someUndefProperty. An undefined property doesn't yield an error and simply returns undefined, which, when converted to a boolean, evaluates to false. So, if you don't care about
0 and false, using if(obj.undefProp) is ok. There's a common idiom based on this fact:
value = obj.prop || defaultValue
which means "if obj has the property prop, assign it to value, otherwise assign the default value defautValue".
Some people consider this behavior confusing, arguing that it leads to hard-to-find errors and recommend using the in operator instead
value = ('prop' in obj) ? obj.prop : defaultValue
Checking null with normal equality will also return true for undefined.
if (window.variable == null) alert('variable is null or undefined');
This is the only case in which == and != should be used:
if (val == null) console.log('val is null or undefined')
if (val != null) console.log('val is neither null nor undefined')
For any other comparisons, the strict comparators (=== and !==) should be used.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Equality_comparisons_and_sameness
https://2ality.com/2011/12/strict-equality-exemptions.html
In newer JavaScript standards like ES5 and ES6 you can just say
> Boolean(0) //false
> Boolean(null) //false
> Boolean(undefined) //false
all return false, which is similar to Python's check of empty variables.
So if you want to write conditional logic around a variable, just say
if (Boolean(myvar)){
// Do something
}
here "null" or "empty string" or "undefined" will be handled efficiently.
If you try and reference an undeclared variable, an error will be thrown in all JavaScript implementations.
Properties of objects aren't subject to the same conditions. If an object property hasn't been defined, an error won't be thrown if you try and access it. So in this situation you could shorten:
if (typeof(myObj.some_property) != "undefined" && myObj.some_property != null)
to
if (myObj.some_property != null)
With this in mind, and the fact that global variables are accessible as properties of the global object (window in the case of a browser), you can use the following for global variables:
if (window.some_variable != null) {
// Do something with some_variable
}
In local scopes, it always useful to make sure variables are declared at the top of your code block, this will save on recurring uses of typeof.
Firstly you have to be very clear about what you test. JavaScript has all sorts of implicit conversions to trip you up, and two different types of equality comparator: == and ===.
A function, test(val) that tests for null or undefined should have the following characteristics:
test(null) => true
test(undefined) => true
test(0) => false
test(1) => false
test(true) => false
test(false) => false
test('s') => false
test([]) => false
Let's see which of the ideas here actually pass our test.
These work:
val == null
val === null || val === undefined
typeof(val) == 'undefined' || val == null
typeof(val) === 'undefined' || val === null
These do not work:
typeof(val) === 'undefined'
!!val
I created a jsperf entry to compare the correctness and performance of these approaches. Results are inconclusive for the time being as there haven't been enough runs across different browsers/platforms. Please take a minute to run the test on your computer!
At present, it seems that the simple val == null test gives the best performance. It's also pretty much the shortest. The test may be negated to val != null if you want the complement.
here's another way using the Array includes() method:
[undefined, null].includes(value)
Since there is no single complete and correct answer, I will try to summarize:
In general, the expression:
if (typeof(variable) != "undefined" && variable != null)
cannot be simplified, because the variable might be undeclared so omitting the typeof(variable) != "undefined" would result in ReferenceError. But, you can simplify the expression according to the context:
If the variable is global, you can simplify to:
if (window.variable != null)
If it is local, you can probably avoid situations when this variable is undeclared, and also simplify to:
if (variable != null)
If it is object property, you don't have to worry about ReferenceError:
if (obj.property != null)
This is an example of a very rare occasion where it is recommended to use == instead of ===. Expression somevar == null will return true for undefined and null, but false for everything else (an error if variable is undeclared).
Using the != will flip the result, as expected.
Modern editors will not warn for using == or != operator with null, as this is almost always the desired behavior.
Most common comparisions:
undeffinedVar == null // true
obj.undefinedProp == null // true
null == null // true
0 == null // false
'0' == null // false
'' == null // false
Try it yourself:
let undefinedVar;
console.table([
{ test : undefinedVar, result: undefinedVar == null },
{ test : {}.undefinedProp, result: {}.undefinedProp == null },
{ test : null, result: null == null },
{ test : false, result: false == null },
{ test : 0, result: 0 == null },
{ test : '', result: '' == null },
{ test : '0', result: '0' == null },
]);
You can just check if the variable has a value or not. Meaning,
if( myVariable ) {
//mayVariable is not :
//null
//undefined
//NaN
//empty string ("")
//0
//false
}
If you do not know whether a variable exists (that means, if it was declared) you should check with the typeof operator. e.g.
if( typeof myVariable !== 'undefined' ) {
// myVariable will get resolved and it is defined
}
Similar to what you have, you could do something like
if (some_variable === undefined || some_variable === null) {
do stuff
}
This is also a nice (but verbose) way of doing it:
if((someObject.someMember ?? null) === null) {
// bladiebla
}
It's very clear what's happening and hard to misunderstand. And that can be VERY important! :-)
This uses the ?? operator (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Nullish_coalescing_operator). If the value of someObject.someMember is null or undefined, the ?? operator kicks in and will make the value null.
TBH, I like the explicitness of this thing, but I usualle prefer someObject.someMember == null, it's more readable and skilled JS developers probably know what's going on here.
whatever yyy is undefined or null, it will return true
if (typeof yyy == 'undefined' || !yyy) {
console.log('yes');
} else {
console.log('no');
}
yes
if (!(typeof yyy == 'undefined' || !yyy)) {
console.log('yes');
} else {
console.log('no');
}
no
Open the Developer tools in your browser and just try the code shown in the below image.
If the purpose of the if statement is to check for null or undefined values before assigning a value to a variable, you can make use of the Nullish Coalescing Operator. According to the data from caniuse, it should be supported by around 85% of the browsers(as of January 2021). An example of the operator is shown below:
const a = some_variable ?? '';
This will ensure that the variable will be assigned to an empty string (or any other default value) if some_variable is null or undefined.
This operator is most suited for your use case, as it does not return the default value for other types of falsy value such as 0 and ''.
As mentioned in one of the answers, you can be in luck if you are talking about a variable that has a global scope. As you might know, the variables that you define globally tend to get added to the windows object. You can take advantage of this fact so lets say you are accessing a variable called bleh, just use the double inverted operator (!!)
!!window['bleh'];
This would return a false while bleh has not been declared AND assigned a value.
In order to understand, Let's analyze what will be the value return by the Javascript Engine when converting undefined , null and ''(An empty string also). You can directly check the same on your developer console.
You can see all are converting to false , means All these three are assuming ‘lack of existence’ by javascript. So you no need to explicitly check all the three in your code like below.
if (a === undefined || a === null || a==='') {
console.log("Nothing");
} else {
console.log("Something");
}
Also I want to point out one more thing.
What will be the result of Boolean(0)?
Of course false. This will create a bug in your code when 0 is a valid value in your expected result. So please make sure you check for this when you write the code.
With Ramda, you can simply do R.isNil(yourValue)
Lodash and other helper libraries have the same function.
I have done this using this method
save the id in some variable
var someVariable = document.getElementById("someId");
then use if condition
if(someVariable === ""){
//logic
} else if(someVariable !== ""){
//logic
}
In ES5 or ES6 if you need check it several times you cand do:
const excluded = [null, undefined, ''];
if (!exluded.includes(varToCheck) {
// it will bee not null, not undefined and not void string
}
let varToCheck = ""; //U have to define variable firstly ,or it throw error
const excluded = [null, undefined, ""];
if (!excluded.includes(varToCheck)) {
// it will bee not null, not undefined and not void string
console.log("pass");
} else {
console.log("fail");
}
for example I copy vladernn's answer to test, u can just click button "Copy snippets to answer" to test too .
Testing nullity (if (value == null)) or non-nullity (if (value != null)) is less verbose than testing the definition status of a variable.
Moreover, testing if (value) (or if( obj.property)) to ensure the existence of your variable (or object property) fails if it is defined with a boolean false value. Caveat emptor :)
Best way to compare undefined or null or 0 with ES5 and ES6 standards
if ((Boolean(some_variable_1) && Boolean(some_variable_2)) === false) {
// do something
}
You can make use of lodash library.
_.isNil(value) gives true for both null and undefined
Test on - https://bazinga.tools/lodash
You must define a function of this form:
validate = function(some_variable){
return(typeof(some_variable) != 'undefined' && some_variable != null)
}
Both values can be easily distinguished by using the strict comparison operator.
Sample Code:
function compare(){
var a = null; //variable assigned null value
var b; // undefined
if (a === b){
document.write("a and b have same datatype.");
}
else{
document.write("a and b have different datatype.");
}
}