What is the best way to test for an empty string with jquery-out-of-the-box?

The link you gave seems to be attempting something different to the test you are trying to avoid repeating.

if (a == null || a=='')

tests if the string is an empty string or null. The article you linked to tests if the string consists entirely of whitespace (or is empty).

The test you described can be replaced by:

if (!a)

Because in javascript, an empty string, and null, both evaluate to false in a boolean context.

Based on David's answer I personally like to check the given object first if it is a string at all. Otherwise calling .trim() on a not existing object would throw an exception:

function isEmpty(value) {
  return typeof value == 'string' && !value.trim() || typeof value == 'undefined' || value === null;
}

Usage:

isEmpty(undefined); // true
isEmpty(null); // true
isEmpty(''); // true
isEmpty('foo'); // false
isEmpty(1); // false
isEmpty(0); // false

Check if data is a empty string (and ignore any white space) with jQuery:

function isBlank( data ) {
    return ( $.trim(data).length == 0 );
}

if(!my_string){ 
// stuff 
}

and

if(my_string !== "")

if you want to accept null but reject empty

EDIT: woops, forgot your condition is if it IS empty

Try executing this in your browser console or in a node.js repl.

var string = ' ';
string ? true : false;
//-> true

string = '';
string ? true : false;
//-> false

Therefore, a simple branching construct will suffice for the test.

if(string) {
    // string is not empty
}

Since you can also input numbers as well as fixed type strings, the answer should actually be:

function isBlank(value) {
  return $.trim(value);
}

Please see this code by jQuery:

 if ($("#ItemId").val().trim() != "") {
            console.log($("#ItemId").val());
        }

Try this

if(!a || a.length === 0)