ISBLANK vs ISNULL?

Question:

What are the differences between ISBLANK and ISNULL in Salesforce? While ISNULL is said to work on text fields, are there specific use cases for each? Which one should be used in formulas and Apex?

Answer:

The distinction between ISBLANK and ISNULL depends on where they are used and the context:

In formulas, ISBLANK and ISNULL serve similar purposes, but there is a key difference. Salesforce recommends using ISBLANK for new formulas because it supports text fields in addition to other types, while ISNULL does not. Here is what the Salesforce documentation states:

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• ISNULL(expression) checks if an expression evaluates to null. However, it does not work reliably with text fields. When used on a text field, it always returns false, even if the field is empty.
• ISBLANK(expression) behaves like ISNULL, but it also works on text fields, correctly identifying them as blank when they are empty. Salesforce encourages using ISBLANK for new formulas for this reason.

If you are working in Apex, ISBLANK and ISNULL are not directly used. Instead, you would typically rely on the String class methods or collection methods:

• String.isBlank(String input): Returns true if the string is null, empty (''), or contains only whitespace.
• String.isEmpty(String input): Returns true if the string is null or empty, but not if it contains only whitespace.
• For collections (lists, sets, maps): Use isEmpty() to check if they contain zero elements.

For example, in Apex:

String textValue = '';
System.debug(String.isBlank(textValue)); // true (empty or whitespace)
System.debug(String.isEmpty(textValue)); // true (empty but not whitespace)
System.debug(String.isBlank(null));     // true
System.debug(String.isEmpty(null));     // true

List<String> items = new List<String>();
System.debug(items.isEmpty()); // true

Code explanation:
The code demonstrates the behavior of String.isBlank and String.isEmpty methods in Apex. isBlank returns true if a string is null, empty, or contains only whitespace, while isEmpty returns true for null or empty strings but not for whitespace-only strings. The isEmpty method on a collection like List checks if it has zero elements, returning true when the list is empty.

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