(1).
var=""
if [ -n "$var" ]; then
echo "not empty"
else
echo "empty"
fi
(2).
function empty
{
local var="$1"
# Return true if:
# 1. var is a null string ("" as empty string)
# 2. a non set variable is passed
# 3. a declared variable or array but without a value is passed
# 4. an empty array is passed
if test -z "$var"
then
[[ $( echo "1" ) ]]
return
# Return true if var is zero (0 as an integer or "0" as a string)
elif [ "$var" == 0 2> /dev/null ]
then
[[ $( echo "1" ) ]]
return
# Return true if var is 0.0 (0 as a float)
elif [ "$var" == 0.0 2> /dev/null ]
then
[[ $( echo "1" ) ]]
return
fi
[[ $( echo "" ) ]]
}
usage:
if empty "${var}"
then
echo "empty"
else
echo "not empty"
fi
(3).
#!/bin/bash
vars=(
""
0
0.0
"0"
1
"string"
" "
)
for (( i=0; i<${#vars[@]}; i++ ))
do
var="${vars[$i]}"
if empty "${var}"
then
what="empty"
else
what="not empty"
fi
echo "VAR \"$var\" is $what"
done
exit
output:
VAR "" is empty
VAR "0" is empty
VAR "0.0" is empty
VAR "0" is empty
VAR "1" is not empty
VAR "string" is not empty
VAR " " is not empty