I need to read the first bit of the EEPROM and store that value into a variable. That part is easy, however, I need the program to do something if the EEPROM is empty such as the first time the pic is turned on. I cant set it each time the pic is turned on because I want it to store what was last used.

eg.

s1 var byte

READ 0, s1
if s1 = "" then s1 = "1" <---- This is where I get errors
.
.
.
'rest of the program

How can I change this?