$VAR = 0 != false

Hi *, I have an ecommerce site where the shopping cart supports options for items. One of the items has an option that is stored in the database as 0 (zero). It doesn't mean false, it means that an option was selected, and the option was 0. If I echo out the variable, you get "0" echoed out. $VAR = "0"; echo $VAR; You get what you would expect. But, if you verify the variable exists first: if($VAR){ echo $VAR; } You get nothing, even though the variable is set. It is set to zero, granted, but it is set! I can understand that in some types of tests you want 0 to be synonimous with false, but here I am only testing if the variable is set to a value, be it false, 0, or something else. I just tested, and isset() works like I think it should (I am NOT the source of all truth and knowledge, just trying to make this make sense), but !empty() does not: if(!empty($VAR)){ echo $VAR; } even though $VAR isn't empty. Thoughts, comments, flames? Thanks, Brian