System.String.IsNullOrEmpty method

This article provides supplementary remarks to the reference documentation for this API.

IsNullOrEmpty is a convenience method that enables you to simultaneously test whether a String is null or its value is String.Empty. It is equivalent to the following code:

bool TestForNullOrEmpty(string s)
{
    bool result;
    result = s == null || s == string.Empty;
    return result;
}

string s1 = null;
string s2 = "";
Console.WriteLine(TestForNullOrEmpty(s1));
Console.WriteLine(TestForNullOrEmpty(s2));

// The example displays the following output:
//    True
//    True

result = s Is Nothing OrElse s = String.Empty

let testForNullOrEmpty (s: string): bool =
    s = null || s = String.Empty

let s1 = null
let s2 = ""

printfn "%b" (testForNullOrEmpty s1)
printfn "%b" (testForNullOrEmpty s2)

// The example displays the following output:
//    true
//    true

You can use the IsNullOrWhiteSpace method to test whether a string is null, its value is String.Empty, or it consists only of white-space characters.

What is a null string?

A string is null if it has not been assigned a value (in C++ and Visual Basic) or if it has explicitly been assigned a value of null. Although the composite formatting feature can gracefully handle a null string, as the following example shows, attempting to call one if its members throws a NullReferenceException.

  String s = null;

  Console.WriteLine("The value of the string is '{0}'", s);

  try 
  {
      Console.WriteLine("String length is {0}", s.Length);
  }
  catch (NullReferenceException e) 
  {
      Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
  }

  // The example displays the following output:
  //     The value of the string is ''
  //     Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Module Example
   Public Sub Main()
      Dim s As String

      Console.WriteLine("The value of the string is '{0}'", s)

      Try 
         Console.WriteLine("String length is {0}", s.Length)
      Catch e As NullReferenceException
         Console.WriteLine(e.Message)
      End Try   
   End Sub
End Module
' The example displays the following output:
'     The value of the string is ''
'     Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

let (s: string) = null

printfn "The value of the string is '%s'" s

try
    printfn "String length is %d" s.Length
with
    | :? NullReferenceException as ex -> printfn "%s" ex.Message

// The example displays the following output:
//     The value of the string is ''
//     Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

What is an empty string?

A string is empty if it is explicitly assigned an empty string ("") or String.Empty. An empty string has a Length of 0. The following example creates an empty string and displays its value and its length.

String s = "";
Console.WriteLine("The length of '{0}' is {1}.", s, s.Length);

// The example displays the following output:
//       The length of '' is 0.

Dim s As String = ""
Console.WriteLine("The length of '{0}' is {1}.", s, s.Length)
' The example displays the following output:
'        The length of '' is 0.

let s = ""
printfn "The length of '%s' is %d." s s.Length

// The example displays the following output:
//       The length of '' is 0.