What is the proper way to check if a string is empty in Perl?

Question

I've just been using this code to check if a string is empty:

if ($str == "")
{
  // ...
}

And also the same with the not equals operator...

if ($str != "")
{
  // ...
}

This seems to work (I think), but I'm not sure it's the correct way, or if there are any unforeseen drawbacks. Something just doesn't feel right about it.

Answer 1

For string comparisons in Perl, use eq or ne:

if ($str eq "")
{
  // ...
}

The == and != operators are numeric comparison operators. They will attempt to convert both operands to integers before comparing them.

See the perlop man page for more information.