The function printf() returns the number of charecters printed on the console.

Step 1: char a[] = '\0'; The variable a is declared as an array of characters and it initialized with "\0". It denotes that the string is empty.

Step 2: if(printf("%s", a)) The printf() statement does not print anything, so it returns '0'(zero). Hence the if condition is failed.

In the else part it prints "The string is empty".