How to check if a Laravel collection is empty?

Before we answer the above question, let us first understand what collections are in Laravel. Collection in Laravel is an API wrapper that helps you deal with different operations to be performed on arrays. It makes use of the class Illuminate\Support\Collection to deal with arrays in Laravel.

To create a collection from a given array you need to make use of the collect() helper method that returns a collection instance. Later you can use a chain of methods like converting to lowercase and sorting on the collection instance.

Example 

The example in this section demonstrates how to create a collection from a given array. Before proceeding with it make sure you have created a controller of your own if not, create one using the artisan make command as −

php artisan make:controller UserController

This will create a controller in the path “Http/Controllers”. Copy the following code and paste it in the created controller.

UserController.php

<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
class UserController extends Controller {
   public function index() {
      $mynames = collect(['Andria', 'Josh', 'James', 'Miya', 'Henry']);
      print_r($mynames);
   }
}

Web.php

We need to create/register a route to call the function index() in the "resources/routes/web.php" file as −

<?php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use App\Http\Controllers\UserController;
Route::get('/', function () {
   return view('welcome');
});
Route::get('getData', [UserController::class,'index' ] );

Once you create these two files run the server as −

php artisan serve

Output

If you test the above program by sending request to the URL http://127.0.0.1:8000/getData it will generate the following output

Illuminate\Support\Collection Object
(
   [items:protected] => Array
      (
         [0] => Andria
         [1] => Josh
         [2] => James
         [3] => Miya
         [4] => Henry
      )
   [escapeWhenCastingToString:protected] =>
)

There are various methods available to see if the collection is empty. They are −

Using the isEmpty() method

The isEmpty() method returns true/false. It’s true when the collection is empty and false if it’s not. Following is the syntax of this method −

isEmpty()

Example

Following example verifies whether a given collection is empty using the isEmpty() method −

<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Collection;

class UserController extends Controller {
   public function index() {
      $mynames = collect([]);
      if ($mynames->isEmpty()) {
         return "Collection is Empty";
      } else {
         return "Collection is Not Empty";
      }
   }
}

Replace the contents of the UserController.php with the above code clear the Route cache as −

php artisan route:clear

Output

If you test the above program by sending request to the URL http://127.0.0.1:8000/getData it will generate the following output –

Collection is Empty

Using the isNotEmpty() method

The isNotEmpty() method returns true if the collection tested is not empty and false if empty. Following is the syntax of this method –

isNotEmpty()

Example

Following example verifies whether a given collection is empty using the isNotEmpty() method −

<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Collection;

class UserController extends Controller {
   public function index() {
      $mynames = collect([]);
      if (!$mynames->isNotEmpty()) {
         return "Collection is Empty";
      } else {
         return "Collection is Not Empty";
      }
   }
}

Output

Collection is Empty

Using the count() method

The count() method returns the number of items inside the collection. Following id the syntax of it −

count()

Example

Following example verifies whether a given collection is empty using the count() method −

<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
class UserController extends Controller {
   public function index() {
      $mynames = collect([]);
      if ($mynames->count() === 0) {
         return "Collection is Empty";
      } else {
         return "Collection is Not Empty";
      }
   }
}

Output

Collection is Empty

Using the first() Method

The first() method returns the first element from the collection.

first()

Example

You can make use of first() to know if the collection is empty or not as shown in the following example −

<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
class UserController extends Controller {
   public function index() {
      $mynames = collect([]);
      if (!$mynames->first()) {
         return "Collection is Empty";
      } else {
         return "Collection is Not Empty";
      }
   }
}

Output

Collection is Empty

Using the count() method

The count() method returns the number of items in the given collection. Following is the syntax of this method

count($collection)

Example

You can use this method to check if the collection is empty as shown below −

<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
class UserController extends Controller {
   public function index() {
      $mynames = collect([]);
      if (count($mynames) === 0) {
         return "Collection is Empty";
      } else {
         return "Collection is Not Empty";
      }
   }
}

Output

Collection is Empty