Title: display error message when return is empty
Last modified: August 30, 2016

---

# display error message when return is empty

 *  [lfeddern](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lfeddern/)
 * (@lfeddern)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-error-message-when-return-is-empty/)
 * Hi so I am usng this snippet for a custom shortcode to display a users submitted
   events in their buddypress profile
 *     ```
       function custom_shortcode(){
            $user_id = bp_displayed_user_id();
            return do_shortcode( '[eo_events author='.$user_id.']' );
       }
       add_shortcode( 'eo_custom_shortcode', 'custom_shortcode' );
       ```
   
 * I am very new to php and trying to learn. I would like to add an if statement
   to display some text like “sorry no events yet” when the shortcode returns no
   events. How do I do this as I dont know what the return type of a shortcode is…
 * Thanks

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  Moderator [keesiemeijer](https://wordpress.org/support/users/keesiemeijer/)
 * (@keesiemeijer)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-error-message-when-return-is-empty/#post-6552337)
 * Try it with this:
 *     ```
       function custom_shortcode() {
       	$user_id = bp_displayed_user_id();
       	$events = do_shortcode( '[eo_events author='.$user_id.']' );
   
       	if ( empty( $events ) ) {
       		$events = "sorry no events yet";
       	}
   
       	return $events;
       }
       add_shortcode( 'eo_custom_shortcode', 'custom_shortcode' );
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [lfeddern](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lfeddern/)
 * (@lfeddern)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-error-message-when-return-is-empty/#post-6552372)
 * Thanks for the reply. Still displays when there is an event but the if statement
   doesn’t seem to be working as the error message is not showing when there are
   no events.
 * Is there something that I need to add in order to display text when the variable
   $events is returned as text?
 *  Thread Starter [lfeddern](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lfeddern/)
 * (@lfeddern)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-error-message-when-return-is-empty/#post-6552376)
 * when i try !empty() I get the error message displayed for all profiles though.
   Even those without events. So I guess for some reason even when the shortcode
   returns no events it must return somehing
 *  Thread Starter [lfeddern](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lfeddern/)
 * (@lfeddern)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-error-message-when-return-is-empty/#post-6552385)
 * (and hence not be empty) if there another function that would work? I tried to
   look and tried is_null but also didnt work
 *  Moderator [keesiemeijer](https://wordpress.org/support/users/keesiemeijer/)
 * (@keesiemeijer)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-error-message-when-return-is-empty/#post-6552413)
 * Try this to see what it returns.
 *     ```
       function custom_shortcode() {
       	$user_id = bp_displayed_user_id();
       	$events = do_shortcode( '[eo_events author='.$user_id.']' );
   
       	// Print the the $events value
       	echo '<pre>';
       	var_dump ($events );
       	echo '</pre>';
   
       	if ( empty( $events ) ) {
       		$events = "sorry no events yet";
       	}
   
       	return $events;
       }
       add_shortcode( 'eo_custom_shortcode', 'custom_shortcode' );
       ```
   

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘display error message when return is empty’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [custom shortcode](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom-shortcode/)
 * [if statement](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/if-statement/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 5 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [keesiemeijer](https://wordpress.org/support/users/keesiemeijer/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-error-message-when-return-is-empty/#post-6552413)
 * Status: not resolved

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