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— title: Detecting that something is empty category: programming tags: macros permalink: /FAQ-empty —

Suppose you need to know that the argument of your command is empty: that is, to distinguish between `\cmd{}` and `\cmd{blah}`. This is pretty simple: <!– {% raw %} –> ```latex \def\cmd#1{%

\def\tempa{}%
\def\tempb{#1}%
\ifx\tempa\tempb
  <empty case>
\else
  <non-empty case>
\fi

} ``` <!– {% endraw %} –> The case where you want to ignore an argument that consists of nothing but spaces, rather than something completely empty, is more tricky. It's solved in the code fragment [`ifmtarg`](https://ctan.org/pkg/ifmtarg), which defines commands `\@ifmtarg` and `\@ifnotmtarg`, which examine their first argument, and select (in opposite directions) their second or third argument. The package's code also appears in the LaTeX [`memoir`](https://ctan.org/pkg/memoir) class.

[`Ifmtarg`](https://ctan.org/pkg/Ifmtarg) makes challenging reading; there's also a discussion of the issue in number two of the “around the bend” articles by the late lamented Mike Downes.