C#: Difference between IsNullOrEmpty and IsNullOrWhiteSpace

IsNullOrEmpty vs IsNullOrWhiteSpace

The main difference between IsNullOrEmpty and IsNullOrWhiteSpace in C# is that IsNullOrEmpty checks if there's at least one character, while IsNullOrWhiteSpace checks every character until it finds a non-white-space character.

Moreover, IsNullOrEmpty was introduced in the .NET Framework version 2.0, while IsNullOrWhiteSpace was introduced in .Net Framework 4.0.

IsNullOrEmpty vs IsNullOrWhiteSpace examples

The following examples show difference between IsNullOrEmpty and IsNullOrWhiteSpace:

string name = ".NET";

Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrEmpty(name)); // False

Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(name)); // False


Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrEmpty(string.Empty)); // True

Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(string.Empty)); // True


Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrEmpty(null)); // True

Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(null)); // True


Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrEmpty(" ")); // False

Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(" ")); // True


Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrEmpty("\n")); // False

Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace("\n")); // True

IsNullOrEmpty vs IsNullOrWhiteSpace similarities

IsNullOrEmpty and IsNullOrWhiteSpace have the following simialrities:

• They return a boolean.
• Both are static methods.
• Both are pure methods. Pure methods don't not make any changes to state.

Why do we need need to do a null check?

In .NET, strings are a nullable value type.

C# Nullable value types is a type representation that allows a variable to contain either a value or null.

If we try to access a property on a string that's null, we'll get a null-reference exception and our code will break.

Tony Hoare introduced Null references in ALGOL W back in 1965. Since then it crashed so many applications. He even calls null-reference to be a billion dollar mistake.

IsNullOrEmpty implementation

The implementation of IsNullOrEmpty in .NET:

public static bool IsNullOrEmpty(String value) 
{
  return (value == null || value.Length == 0);
}

IsNullOrEmpty returns true if either value is null or if the lenght of the string is zero.

IsNullOrWhiteSpace implementation

The implementation of IsNullOrWhiteSpace in .NET:

public static bool IsNullOrWhiteSpace(String value) {
    if (value == null) return true;

    for(int i = 0; i < value.Length; i++) 
    {
        if(!Char.IsWhiteSpace(value[i])) return false;
    }

    return true;
}

IsNullOrEmpty returns true if either value is null or if all characters of the string are white space. The method uses a for loop through each character and performs the Char.IsWhiteSpace check.

Which characters are considered white spaces?

In .NET, these characters are consider white spaces:

• U+0009 = Horizontal tab
• U+000a = Line feed
• U+000b = Vertical tab
• U+000c = Form feed
• U+000d = Carriage return
• U+0085 = Next line
• U+00a0 = No-break space