[Resolved] checking form variables for content

[gumby]

Please excuse the newbie-ish question:

What is the best practice as far as checking a form variable for content, i.e. finding out it the user sent data? Is it:

$name = $_POST['name'];
if (!empty($name)) {
do something
}

or

$name = $_POST['name'];
if (!$name) {

[stolzyboy]

those are valid ways of doing it, however, they both will likely create a log of the check, since it is such an ambiguous check, you can do it like

if ($_POST['varname'] == "")

that will not create an error log...

but really it is more of a personal preference than anything

[gumby]

Also, what about:

if (!isset($var)) {
do something
}

[stolzyboy]

that will be something similar to

if (!empty($name))