diff --git a/blog_posts/python-string-is-empty.md b/blog_posts/python-string-is-empty.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..73e74130f --- /dev/null +++ b/blog_posts/python-string-is-empty.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: How can I check if a string is empty in Python? +shortTitle: String is empty +type: question +tags: python,string +expertise: beginner +author: chalarangelo +cover: blog_images/tea-laptop-table.jpg +excerpt: Here are two quick and elegant ways to check if a string is empty in Python. +firstSeen: 2022-08-05T05:00:00-04:00 +--- + +When working with Python strings, a pretty common question is how does one check if a string is empty. There's a straightforward answer to this that takes advantage of the truth value of strings. + +In Python, any object can be tested for truth value, including strings. In this context, strings are considered truthy if they are non-empty, meaning they contain at least one character. Thus, simply using the `not` operator, you can check if a string is empty. + +```py +empty_string = '' +non_empty_string = 'Hello' + +not empty_string # True +not non_empty_string # False +``` + +While this method works in most cases, you may also need to check if the actual value is a string. In this case, you can compare your string to the empty string using the `==` operator. + +```py +empty_string = '' +non_empty_string = 'Hello' +non_string = 0 + +empty_string == '' # True +non_empty_string == '' # False +non_string == '' # False +```