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 do not need to differentiate between an empty string and some other falsy value. To explicitly check for an empty string use the following:
if myString == "":
See the documentation on Truth Value Testing for other values that are false in Boolean contexts.
Answer from Andrew Clark on Stack OverflowEmpty 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 do not need to differentiate between an empty string and some other falsy value. To explicitly check for an empty string use the following:
if myString == "":
See the documentation on Truth Value Testing for other values that are false in Boolean contexts.
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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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.
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