Empty strings are "falsy" (python 2 or python 3 reference), which means they are considered false in a Boolean context, so you can just do this:

if not myString:

This is the preferred way if you know that your variable is a string. If your variable could also be some other type then you should use:

if myString == "":

See the documentation on Truth Value Testing for other values that are false in Boolean contexts.

Answer from Andrew Clark on Stack Overflow
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Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 9573244 › how-to-check-if-the-string-is-empty-in-python
How to check if the string is empty in Python? - Stack Overflow
Top answer
1 of 16
3160

Empty strings are "falsy" (python 2 or python 3 reference), which means they are considered false in a Boolean context, so you can just do this:

if not myString:

This is the preferred way if you know that your variable is a string. If your variable could also be some other type then you should use:

if myString == "":

See the documentation on Truth Value Testing for other values that are false in Boolean contexts.

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565

From PEP 8, in the “Programming Recommendations” section:

For sequences, (strings, lists, tuples), use the fact that empty sequences are false.

So you should use:

if not some_string:

or:

if some_string:

Just to clarify, sequences are evaluated to False or True in a Boolean context if they are empty or not. They are not equal to False or True.

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PythonHow
pythonhow.com › how › check-if-a-string-is-empty
Here is how to check if a string is empty in Python
my_string = "" if len(my_string) == 0: print("String is empty.")Another alternative would be to use the bool() function. This will check if the string is empty or not, returning True if it's empty and False if it's not.
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Sentry
sentry.io › sentry answers › python › check if a string is empty in python
Check if a string is empty in Python | Sentry
if my_string == "": print("my_string is an empty string!") else: print("my_string is not an empty string!")
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Spark By {Examples}
sparkbyexamples.com › home › python › check if string is empty or not in python
Check if String is Empty or Not in Python - Spark By {Examples}
May 21, 2024 - The __eq__() method is a special method, it is one of the so-called “dunder” methods (short for “double underscore”), which are special methods in Python that have a particular syntax, beginning and ending with two underscores.
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GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › python › python-program-to-check-if-string-is-empty-or-not
Check if String is Empty or Not - Python - GeeksforGeeks
July 11, 2025 - Explanation: A simple equality check (s == "") determines if the string is empty. The len() function returns the length of a string so if the length is 0, it means that string is empty: ... The string is empty.
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Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 5690491 › best-way-to-do-a-not-none-test-in-python-for-a-normal-and-unicode-empty-string
Best way to do a "not None" test in Python for a normal and Unicode empty string? - Stack Overflow
Top answer
1 of 6
64

Empty strings are considered false.

if string:
    # String is not empty.
else:
    # String is empty.
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6

You never want to use is with anything that isn't guaranteed to be a singleton. Check the length of the returned value, and if it's an instance of unicode.

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Python Pool
pythonpool.com › home › blog › 7 quick ways to check if string is empty in python
7 Quick Ways to Check If String is Empty in Python - Python Pool
May 4, 2023 - #input empty with and without spaces string s = "" str = " " x = len(s) y = len(str) if x == 0: print("string is empty") else: print("string is not empty") if y == 0: print("string is empty") else: print("string is not empty") ... Here, we have ...
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Enterprise DNA
blog.enterprisedna.co › python-empty-string
Python Empty String: Explained With Examples – Master Data Skills + AI
You have several choices for identifying an empty string with Python code. Here are the three simplest ways: ... You can compare a string variable with a quoted empty string using the eq operator to check for equality.
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Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 9926446 › how-to-check-whether-a-strvariable-is-empty-or-not › 9926661
python - How to check whether a str(variable) is empty or not? - Stack Overflow
Top answer
1 of 14
209

You could just compare your string to the empty string:

if variable != "":
    etc.

But you can abbreviate that as follows:

if variable:
    etc.

Explanation: An if actually works by computing a value for the logical expression you give it: True or False. If you simply use a variable name (or a literal string like "hello") instead of a logical test, the rule is: An empty string counts as False, all other strings count as True. Empty lists and the number zero also count as false, and most other things count as true.

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24

The "Pythonic" way to check if a string is empty is:

import random
variable = random.choice(l)
if variable:
    # got a non-empty string
else:
    # got an empty string
Find elsewhere
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnpython › what’s the difference between none and an empty string (“ “)?
r/learnpython on Reddit: What’s the difference between None and an Empty String (“ “)?
June 21, 2020 -

I recently came across a problem in a textbook where these 2 were interchangeable. So what’s the difference between these 2 and when to use which? Thanks!

Edit for context:

would like to clarify the use of None in this question to initialize the while loop, how does it initialize the loop?

start = None

while start != “”: start = int(input(“Start: “) . . .

Top answer
1 of 4
12
one of them is a string, with which you can do all the string stuff. the other is nothing
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7
Well first of all, " " isn't an empty string, it's a string containing a single space. The empty string is "". But "" is only equivalent to None in a boolean context, because they are both falsy. That is, if you do: if my_var: and my_var is either of those (or 0, or an empty list, dict, etc) then it will be False. But otherwise these are completely different.
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Syntax Scenarios
syntaxscenarios.com › python › check-if-a-string-is-empty
How to Check if a String is Empty in Python? – Syntax Scenarios
Another straightforward method to check for an empty string is by comparing it with "". It explicitly shows what you are checking for. A string is treated as empty if it is the same as "". ... In this example, the program compares str_text with an empty string using the equality operator ==. Since ...
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Python Examples
pythonexamples.org › python-check-if-string-is-empty
Python - How to check if string is Empty?
Python - Check if String is Empty - To check if given string is empty, you can either use the string variable as is inplace a condition along with not operator, or verify if the string equals empty string "" using equal to operator.
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Scaler
scaler.com › home › topics › program to check if string is empty in python
Program to Check if String is Empty in Python - Scaler Topics
January 11, 2023 - We can either use the not operator ... the equal operator to match with an empty string. Only strings which no whitespaces are considered empty while we implement the not operator and hence it gets evaluated to TRUE.
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Esri Community
community.esri.com › t5 › python-questions › quot-if-not-null-and-not-empty-string-quot-paradox › td-p › 1618009
Solved: "If not Null and not empty string" paradox - help ... - Esri Community
May 29, 2025 - Your original logic is also evaluating to True if the sate is both None and not an empty string (which is always True) ... From both a practice ( https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/ ) and performance perspective, checking for None should be done using "is" or "is not".
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Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 8519647 › none-vs-empty-string-in-python
null - None vs Empty String in Python - Stack Overflow
Top answer
1 of 4
17

You could cut down on code slightly by just writing

if variable and variable.upper() == "X":
    #Do something

If the variable is none or empty, then it's equivalent to False.

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4
if variable and variable.upper() == 'X'

is a little less wordy. It will also treat None and the empty string in the same way if that is something you want

Edit: Note that this does have different semantics to the expression you posted in the way it handles empty strings... i.e. in your expression the rhs of the and would get evaluated if variable is the empty string, but in this expression it would not as the empty string evaluates to False

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Python.org
discuss.python.org › python help
.Empty string comprehension? - Python Help - Discussions on Python.org
March 14, 2020 - Hello everyone , I wrote this code ... string , but we when set age as a number ( age = 4 ) no error happens , when we say if age = True , that means age is not an empty string , ......
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Tutor Python
tutorpython.com › check-if-string-is-empty-in-python
How to Handle or Check if String is empty in Python
December 25, 2023 - One of the most straightforward ways to check if a string is empty is by directly comparing it with an empty string using the equality (==) operator. my_string = "Hello, World!" if my_string == "": print("The string is empty") else: print("The ...
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TutorialsPoint
tutorialspoint.com › what-is-the-most-elegant-way-to-check-if-the-string-is-empty-in-python
What is the most elegant way to check if the string is empty in Python?
str1 = "" if not str1: print("It Is Empty.") else: print("It Is Not Empty.") ... The string is empty. The Python len() function is used to determine the length of an object (such as list, string or dictionary).
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datagy
datagy.io › home › python posts › python strings › how to check if a string is empty in python
How to Check if a String is Empty in Python • datagy
December 16, 2022 - The simplest, and most Pythonic, way of checking if a string is empty in Python is to simply use an if-else block with the not keyword.
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Stack Abuse
stackabuse.com › how-to-check-if-a-string-is-empty-or-none-in-python
How to Check if a String is Empty or None in Python
June 5, 2023 - In this example, the if statement checks two conditions: if s is None and if s is an empty string. If either condition is true, it will print "String is empty or None". If both conditions are false (meaning the string is not None and it's not empty), it will print "String is not empty and not None". Python has two equality operators, == and is.
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