Confusing if statement in php

Question

I am updating the old code (someone wrote) and came across this:

if ( empty ( $role_data["role_id" == 1])) 

what are the reasons (if any) should be used above, and not ?:

 if ( $role_data["role_id"] != 1) 

IMO readability is worse and this is more code. Performance is not a factor.

- EDIT -

It should be noted that the expected input ($ role_data ["role_id"]) is a number from 0 to 5 (inclusive)


- ADDITIONAL INFORMATION -

I missed the code for the first time. But here is what happens:

 $role_id = htmlspecialchars ( mysql_real_escape_string ( $_GET["role_id"] ) ); $role_data = $db->fctSelectData ( "core_role" , "`role_id` = '" . $role_id . "'" ); 

This is done to obtain permissions to create the role. But if the invalid $role_id specified $role_id (via the $ _GET parameter), it does not return anything and, therefore, checks the empty value in:

 if ( empty ( $role_data["role_id" == 1] ) ) 

I still do not quite understand why it is written like this.

Answer 1

Line

 if (empty($role_data["role_id" == 1])) 

Translates to ...

 if (empty($role_data[0])) 

... PHP interpreter. This code can be a “joke”, a funny hack, or a string error:

 if (empty($role_data["role_id"]) == 1) 

.. view makes sense.