C# tips: string.IsNullOrEmpty vs string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace

#dotnet #csharp

When working with text in .NET, one of the most common checks we perform is:
“Does this string have a meaningful value, or is it just empty/null?”

Two helpers exist for this purpose:

string.IsNullOrEmpty
string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace At first glance, they may seem similar, but there’s an important distinction that can save you from getting bugs.

Using string.IsNullOrEmpty

This method checks if a string is either:

null
"" (an empty string)

Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrEmpty(null));   // true
Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrEmpty(""));     // true
Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrEmpty("   "));  // false
Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrEmpty("abc"));  // false

Notice that " " (spaces only) returns false.
This means IsNullOrEmpty only guards against null or empty strings, not whitespace.

Using string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace

This method goes one step further: it considers whitespace-only strings as invalid.

Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(null));   // true
Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(""));     // true
Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace("   "));  // true
Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace("abc"));  // false

Here, " " returns true because the method trims out whitespace and checks for emptiness.

Performance Consideration

Both methods are O(n) because they may scan characters (especially IsNullOrWhiteSpace).

IsNullOrEmpty is slightly faster since it only checks length.
IsNullOrWhiteSpace is marginally slower but usually negligible in real-world apps.

For example:

var str = new string(' ', 1000); // 1000 spaces

Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrEmpty(str));     // false
Console.WriteLine(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(str)); // true