How to check if a SimpleHTMLDom element does not exist

php if-statement simple-html-dom

Nyxynyx · Aug 22, 2012 · Viewed 15.9k times · Source

SimpleHtmldom can be used to extract the contents of the first element with class description.

$html = str_get_html($html);
$html->find('.description', 0)

However if this class does not exist, PHP will throw an error

Trying to get property of non-object

I tried

if(!isset($html->find('.description', 0))) {
    echo 'not set';
}

and

if(!empty($html->find('.description', 0))) {
    echo 'not set';
}

but both gives the error

Can't use method return value in write context

What is the proper way to check if the element exist?

Answer

if(($html->find('.description', 0))) {
    echo 'set';
}else{
    echo 'not set';
}