content/snippets/python/s/string-is-empty.md
---
title: How can I check if a string is empty in Python?
shortTitle: String is empty
type: question
language: python
tags: [string]
cover: tea-laptop-table
excerpt: Here are two quick and elegant ways to check if a string is empty in Python.
listed: false
dateModified: 2022-08-05
---
When working with Python strings, a pretty common question is how does one check if a string is empty. There's a straightforward answer to this that takes advantage of the truth value of strings.
In Python, any object can be tested for truth value, including strings. In this context, **strings are considered truthy if they are non-empty**, meaning they contain at least one character. Thus, simply using the `not` operator, you can check if a string is empty.
```py
empty_string = ''
non_empty_string = 'Hello'
not empty_string # True
not non_empty_string # False
```
While this method works in most cases, you may also need to check if the actual value is a string. In this case, you can compare your string to the empty string using the `==` operator.
```py
empty_string = ''
non_empty_string = 'Hello'
non_string = 0
empty_string == '' # True
non_empty_string == '' # False
non_string == '' # False
```