PHP | Should I Assign Shorthand if Statement to a varible

Question

I'm using a shorthand if statement to validate if a value is assigned to a variable, my question is should I assign the statement to a variable, because it's working if I assigned it or not.

statement not assigned to variable | working

!empty($name) ? $name : $name="";

statement assigned to variable | also working

$is_name = (!empty($name)) ? $name : $name="" ;

Both statements are working, but which one is correct or better to be used.

Answer 1

this may be better. you don't need a extra ! operaiton and variable assignment.

  $is_name = empty($name) ? "" : $name;

or

  $is_name = isset($name) ? $name : "";  //recomended this one

Answer 2

In php 5.3+ you can use this:

$is_name = $name ?: "";

Note: In your case this is probably not the best idea, since it produces a warning, if $name is not set. Here I would still recommend the normal way

$is_name = isset($name) ? $name : "";

But the question is why to have a uninitialized variable anyway ?

If you just have the case that $name can be an empty string and you want to give it a default value in this case, the ?: operator is your fit.

$is_name = $name ?: "default value";