Is True (In PHP)?

Question

What to use better?

if ( $boolean ) {}

...or:

if ( $boolean === true ) {}

Both work, both check that $boolean is set to 'true'. The second one also checks $boolean's type.

If we assume that $boolean holds value that's boolean, what option should I use?

Solution 1

The first is better if you simply want a truthy-check.

• It's shorter and thus easier to read
• Even though it doesn't explicitly state equality to true, it's rather obvious what it does

The explicit type check with === is a better choice when you must be sure of the type of the data (eg. input validation or such)

Solution 2

The two, doesn't really do the same thing. if ($boolean) is more of a 'not false' statement, asserting true for anything not false, 0, or null. If you set $boolean = 'false', the statement will be true.

Assuming that it is a pure boolean comparison you want, you should use the latter case explicity checking that the contents of the variable is in fact a boolean.

Solution 3

Using if ( $boolean === true ) {} when you know that $boolean is a boolean is redundant, therefore I wouldn't consider it good practice. This can be further reinforced by naming variables with names that show their booleaness, e.g. $isCool.

Comments

[Jürgen Thelen]

+1 for mentioning both cases.