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I'm building a Directory in Wordpress, and using Advanced Custom Fields for the client to populate the directory entries. One of the sections is for Social Media icons.

Using the following code, I can check to see if any of the three fields (twitter / facebook / linked-in) is empty, and if empty to not show an icon:

<li><?php if(get_field('twitter') != ""): ?><a href="<?php the_field('twitter'); ?>" class="twitter">Twitter<span></span></a></li>
<?php else: ?><?php endif; ?> 
<li><?php if(get_field('facebook') != ""): ?><a href="<?php the_field('facebook'); ?>" class="facebook">Facebook<span></span></a></li>
<?php else: ?><?php endif; ?>
<li><?php if(get_field('linked_in') != ""): ?><a href="<?php the_field('linked_in'); ?>" class="linked">Linked In<span></span></a></li>
<?php else: ?><?php endif; ?>

I need help in working how to check to see if all 3 fields are empty to show additional text. (E.g There are no social icons to display).

I currently have:

<?php if(get_field('linked_in') && get_field('twitter') && get_field('facebook') != ""): ?>
<span class="small">There are no Social Media links to display</span><?php endif; ?>

However, using this code shows nothing when all 3 fields are empty - but shows the text 'There are no social...' when all 3 fields have values instead!

I'd be very appreciative if anyone can send me in the right direction on this one. I'm pretty much still a newbie, but trying hard to learn so please be gentle!

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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

Note that get_field returns false and not an empty string when no value is found. It's not written in the docs there but you can try a var_dump on an empty get_field item to confirm.

So you should check them against false. I've broken down each condition on its own line for the sake of simplicity:

<?php 
if(
    ( false === get_field('linked_in') ) && #no linked_in value
    ( false === get_field('twitter') ) && #no twitter value
    ( false === get_field('facebook') )  #no facebook value
  ): 
?>
<span class="small">There are no Social Media links to display</span>
<?php endif; ?>

Test for return value of get_field on an item that does not exist:

var_dump( get_field('dummy_string',232) );
// results: bool(false)
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$var = false; var_dump( empty($var) ); // true – Max Yudin Feb 12 at 12:35
$var = ''; var_dump( empty($var) ); // true – Max Yudin Feb 12 at 12:36
Yep, but why call another function when we can compare against false directly? – rrikesh Feb 12 at 12:41
empty() will also return true for integer 0, float 0.0 and string 0, which could potentially be a saved post meta value. – rrikesh Feb 12 at 12:50
Hi rrikesh. Thanks so much for the help; it's greatly appreciated. However, when I said I'm 'pretty much a newbie' I wasn't exaggerating! I'm not sure what I need to do with the var_dump - and where exactly to put it. If you can help further that'd be fantastic - but no worries if not. – user2064265 Feb 12 at 12:51
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up vote 0 down vote

Your if-statement wont work the way you want it.

Change this part of the code

if(get_field('linked_in') && get_field('twitter') && get_field('facebook') != "")

Into

if(empty(get_field('linked_in')) && empty(get_field('twitter')) && empty(get_field('facebook')))

This way all three fields will be checked whether they are empty or not.

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Hi Mike. Many thanks for your help, it's much appreciated - but unfortunately I'm getting this error when using that code: Fatal error: Can't use function return value in write context – user2064265 Feb 12 at 12:46

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