What are potential pitfalls when checking for NULL values in PHP arrays?

When checking for NULL values in PHP arrays, a potential pitfall is mistaking an empty string ('') for NULL. To accurately check for NULL values, you should use the `is_null()` function instead of just checking for falsy values like empty strings. This ensures that only actual NULL values are detected. 

// Potential pitfall: mistaking empty string for NULL
$array = ['foo' => '', 'bar' => NULL];

// Incorrect check for NULL values
if ($array['foo'] == NULL) {
    echo 'This will be incorrectly executed for an empty string';
}

// Correct check for NULL values
if (is_null($array['foo'])) {
    echo 'This will correctly handle NULL values';
}

Keywords

NULL values PHP arrays isset function array_key_exists function empty function

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