How to find out if DDXMLElement has a value?

I have a XML WebService (and no chance to change this) elements can be empty but I see no obvious way to do this using KissXML.

Is there a way to prevent app crashing if <thing>false</thing> is <thing/> ?

I am using this code:

if ([[element elementsForName:@"thing"] count] > 0) {
    id obj = [[element elementsForName:@"thing"] objectAtIndex:0];
    if (obj) self.thing = [obj boolValue];
}

Always check these objects, especially because the xml is coming from outside the app and can have unpredictable formatting. You are calling objectAtIndex:, but you don't know how many objects there are.

if ([[element elementsForName:@"thing"] count] > 0) {

   NSArray *elements = [element elementsForName:@"thing"];

   id obj = [elements objectAtIndex:0];

   NSString *stringValue = [obj stringValue];

   BOOL boolValue = FALSE;

   if(stringValue) {
     boolValue = [stringValue boolValue];
   }
   self.thing = boolValue;
}