PHP8.1 Fix issue with passing NULL value for locale into string function

[seamuslee001]

Description

This fixes an issue in PHP8.1 where passing a NULL value to strlen() function is deprecated

Checklist:

• [x] I have run composer run-script check --timeout=0 and no errors were reported
• [x] The new code is covered by unit tests (check build/coverage for coverage report)
• [x] I have updated the documentation to describe the changes

[NelinD]

We need this!

[Ilyasoad]

we all need this