I have a variable with other content included at each end, but I do not want the extra content to show if the variable is empty. Can I do this without doing a full if-else. Is there anything I can do with the variable to hide all if variable is empty.
<?php if htmlencode($postcode_coveringsRecord['borough']!=""): ?>
<?php echo ' Borough of '.htmlencode($postcode_coveringsRecord['borough'].' area') ?>
<?php endif; ?>
You'll need some kind of if-like condition somewhere, there's no built-in shortcut function in PHP that will do this for you (eg. a function that concatenates a bunch of strings if, and only if, all arguments are non-empty).
An alternative method using the ternary operator (just an if-else-like construct on one line):
echo (empty($postcode_coveringsRecord['borough']) ? '' : ' Borough of '.htmlencode($postcode_coveringsRecord['borough']).' area');
(Btw, the closing parenthesis in your example is arguably in the wrong place.)
If you did find this was a common requirement, then you could perhaps write a function:
/**
* Join the passed arguments together.
* But only if all arguments are not "empty".
* If any arguments are empty then return an empty string.
* @param string Strings - Multiple arguments
* @return string
*/
function joinNonEmptyStr(/* Any number of args */) {
$result = '';
$args = func_get_args();
foreach ($args as $str) {
// If the argument is empty then abort and return nothing.
// - But permit "0" to be a valid string to append
if (empty($str) && !is_numeric($str)) {
return '';
}
$result .= $str;
}
return $result;
}
// Example
echo htmlentities(joinNonEmptyStr(' Borough of ',$postcode_coveringsRecord['borough'],' area'));
