title: PHP - Checking return value in an if statement
body: <p>I have seen programming practices where a string or a boolean can be returned from a function. In such cases, is it recommended to check for empty() and isset() in the if loops, or will just doing a check like if($returnvar) will work or not.</p>
  
  <p>Here's a piece of code I am playing around with. What do you think should be the output and are the checks correct in the if condition?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks,</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?php
  
  function testMe()
  {
   try
   {
    $returnText = 'John King Rocks';
    return $returnText;
   }
   catch (Exception $e)
   {
    return false;
   }
  }
  
  $str = testMe();
  if ($str)
  {
    echo $str;
  }
  
  ?&gt;
  </code></pre>