alisinabh
Best way to achieve empty string
So in elixir sometimes you need to do something like this:
def function(acc, condition1, condition2) do
acc <>
cond do
condition1 -> "hello"
condition2 -> "world!"
true -> "" # Add nothing to acc
end
end
Sometimes you need to use an empty string. Currently i only see two options for that
- using
""(empty string with two double qoutes) - using
<<>>(empty binary)
It would be a good thing if Elixir’s String module would provide a function like: String.empty/0 that would return a human readable form of empty string in Elixir.
But for now, Which way you think is better to use? 1 or 2? Or any other solutions?
I personally think that 2 is better since no special chars can hide inside it!
Most Liked
rvirding
Have you never used binaries for protocols? 
OvermindDL1
Heh, now that Unicode is out in full force, that is not at all a bad point, hmm…
OvermindDL1
Network protocols! Bitstring syntax in network protocols in Erlang is an utter bliss compared to any other language I’ve used! ^.^
Like parse out the TCPv4 packet format from scratch, just for fun, then try it in any other language. ^.^
alisinabh
In Elixir code they mostly used "" as Empty string.
NobbZ
I’m not sure if we really need String.empty/0. Thats very noisy and writing the empty string literally saves me a lot of keystrokes.
And if one should use "" vs. <<>>, well it depends. If I am dealing with String (meaning a sequence of unicode characters) I do prefer "" while I prefer to use <<>> when I am dealing with random binary garbdata.
Popular in Questions
Other popular topics
Latest on Elixir Forum
Sponsor Spotlight
Courses that'll move you from confusion to "Aha, now I get it!"
Categories:
Sub Categories:
Forums
Our Sponsors
Build Elixir applications with speed and confidence.
Supporting innovation across the BEAM ecosystem.
We build reliable cloud platforms for business-critical systems.
Catch errors, track performance, monitor hosts and more.
Practical resources that improve the lives of professional developers.
Producing high quality Elixir screencasts since 2017.
The deployment platform built for Elixir: PaaS ease, VPS control.
Courses that'll move you from confusion to "Aha, now I get it!"