Are there more advantages to returning an empty string or null value?
php, return-type, return-value
Solution
PHP convention
Return boolean `FALSE`.
OOP approch
Throw an exception. Also you should use a method `dir_exitsts` (or any other name you like) that only returns boolean (true of false). And use it before calling `getDir`
There really no specific rule for this. Its completely up to you.
I follow PHP way which is returning `false`.
Problem
If I were writing the below method (for example) is it considered good practice to either: A: return an empty string if the document didn't exist? B: return a `null` value? Having done a lot of Java, and methods in Java requiring a return type, I'm under the impression it is best practice to return a consistent type, is this also the case in PHP or is it better to return a `null` value instead? ``` DocumentClass { public function getDir($documentId) { /* Code to get location of document */ return (file_exists($document) ? $document : ''); } } if (!empty($documentClass->getDir(5)) { /* Do this */ } ``` If it is better to return a `null` value, can you explain why?