How to write a if statement based on a empty stdClass() from SOAP AXL returned?

Question

I am a newbie to programming and I am trying to find a solution for a response from a SOAP Server.

I am trying to get a user from a server and if the user ID is available it returns its user id but when no user is found it gives something like below.

[return] => stdClass Object
        (
            [user] => stdClass Object
                (
                  [associateduser] => stdClass Object
                                       (
                                        )

so in PHP, I am trying to define a condition like,

if(return->user->associateduser){
   echo something;
else{
   echo something;

This is not working and requesting someone help on how to work on this empty object using an if statement.

Thanks in advance.