If I were writing the below method (for example) is it considered good practice to either:
A: return an empty string if the document didn't exist
B: return a null value?
Having done a lot of Java, and methods in Java requiring a return type I'm under the impression it is best practice to return a consistent type, is this also the case in PHP or is it better to return a null value instead?
DocumentClass
{
public function getDir($documentId)
{
/* Code to get location of document */
return (file_exists($document) ? $document : '');
}
}
if (!empty($documentClass->getDir(5))
{
/* Do this */
}
If it is better to return a null value, can you explain why?
Thanks!