term_exists returns 0 and null

[barrykooij]

The function term_exists in wp-includes/taxonomy.php has two different return values, 0 and null. The function does a few checks and returns 0 if the condition of the check is not met. If the checks are met, the return value will be the result of a $wpdb->get_row or $wpdb->get_var. If the term is not found in the database the methods get_row and get_var will return null.

Because of the different type of return values it's not possible to do a strict check on the return value to see if a term was found. I've changed the return 0 in term_exists to return null, so that if there is no term found the result of term_exists will always be null.

Taxonomy Patch

Should probably do the same with post_exists.

Replying to ocean90:

Should probably do the same with post_exists.

Indeed, should I create a separate ticket for this?

You can upload another patch on this ticket, since it seems similar enough.

Because of the different type of return values it's not possible to do a strict check on the return value to see if a term was found.

Consistency is good, but I wonder where the need for a strict check comes from.

It should be possible to check with if ( ! term_exists( 'events', 'post_tag' ) ) if a term was not found, unless I'm missing something.