Convert null to string

Question

Is it possible to convert null to string with php?

For instance,

$string = null;

to

$string = "null";

Solution 1

Am I missing something here?

if ($string === null) {
    $string = 'null';
}

---

was thinking something shorter...

You can do it in one line, and omit the braces:

if ($string === null) $string = 'null';

You can also use the conditional operator:

$string = ($string === null) ? 'null' : $string;

Your call.

Solution 2

in PHP 7 you can use Null coalescing operator ??

$string = $string ?? 'null';

Solution 3

var_export can represent any variable in parseable string.

Solution 4

While not very elegant or legible, you can also do the following

is_null($string) && $string = 'null';  // assignment, not a '==' comparison

// $string is 'null'

or

$string = is_null($string) ? gettype($string) : $string;

// $string is 'NULL'

Note: var_export($string, true) (mentioned in other replies) returns 'NULL'

View more solutions

Comments

[Run]

no u didn't. i just thought there might be a way without using if condition... guess not :-)

[Matt Ball]

What's the problem with using if?

[user1303559]

i think use case for this is only $str = "ergergegE".($string === null ? "null" : $string)."ergegrregege"; it very long string:) $str= "regregrege".json_encode($string)."ergegergerge"; is shortest and universally

[Vladislav Rastrusny]

Seem to be the slowest and overcomplicated

[ToolmakerSteve]

Won't do what is wanted, if the string is empty '', because PHP's == operator considers null to be equal to an empty string. This is why the accepted answer uses === operator instead. See PHP type comparison tables, scroll down to the table labeled "Loose comparisons with ==".