Question: I have three variables:

```
$var1
$var2
$var3

```

I'm actually looking for the best way to check if **only one** of these three variables is not empty and the **two others** are empty.

Is that possible to do this with one `if` only? If not, then what's the best way?

The variables all contain text.

Answer: 
```
$counter=0;
$counter+= empty($var1) ? 0:1;
$counter+= empty($var2) ? 0:1;
$counter+= empty($var3) ? 0:1;

if($counter==1)
   echo "Exactly 2 are empty";

```

**[Fiddle](https://eval.in/641962)**

Or you can simply do

```
var_dump(count(array_filter(array($var1,$var2,$var3)))==1);

```

**[Fiddle](https://eval.in/641979)**
Try this one:

```
if (($var1 !== '' && $var2 == '' && $var3 == '') ||
    ($var2 !== '' && $var1 == '' && $var3 == '')  ||
    ($var3 !== '' && $var1 == '' && $var2 == '')) {
    echo 'variable is empty';
}

```