Example where checking if a property of an object is empty fails when magic methods are involved.

example_where_empty_check_fails.php

//this check will fail if $user->user_email is not set already
//it usese a PHP "magic method" to fetch the value, but
//the empty check will return true instead of actually
//checking the value
if ( empty( $user->user_email ) )		//in a lot of cases $user->user_email is always empty, even if the user has email address
	return;


//this check will work no matter what
$email = $user->user_email;	
if (empty($email))
	return;