Page should show exist instead of blank page - php

Question

I made login.php file by following video tutorial and I am trying to make so that the page will show exist instead of blank page. I know that user exists because I made user with my name on phpMyAdmin.
Her is the code
<?php
include 'core/init.php';
if (user_exists('Denis') === true) {
echo 'exists';
}
die();
if(empty($_POST) === false) {
$username = $_POST['username'];
$password = $_POST['password'];
if (empty($username) === true || empty($password) === true) {
$errors[] = 'You need to enter a username and password';
} else if (user_exists($username) === false) {
$errors[] = 'We can\'t find that username. Have you registered?';
}
}
?>
Init.php
<?php
session_start();
error_reporting(0);
require 'database/connect.php';
require 'functions/general.php';
require 'functions/users.php';
$errors = array();
?>

Answer 1

you are calling the die() function at line 7
this function terminates the running script

Answer 2

Clearly user_exists('Denis') is returning false, since it's getting past the echo 'exists'; line and hitting the die() call.

Answer 3

Depending on how you are returning your boolean, you might try two "==" signs rather than three. It might not be able to type cast.

Answer 4

You can try:
if (user_exists('Denis')) {
echo 'exists';
}
As long as user_exists('Denis') evaluates to true (i.e. is not empty or 0), you will "exists" will be echoed.
If that doesn't work, try to figure out why user_exists() is getting a falsy value. There may be something wrong with the logic to check if a user exists.