How do I test if an array is empty or not?

[Anonymous Monk]

How do I test if an array is empty or not?

Originally posted as a Categorized Question.

[merlyn]

The name of the array (like @a) in a scalar context yields the number of elements currently in the array. And a boolean test selects scalar context automatically, so something like:

if (@a) { # @a is not empty...
  ...
} else { # @a is empty
  ...
}

should work just fine.

[Fastolfe]

As a supplement to merlyn's answer, never be tempted to use defined on an array (or a hash for that matter). Simply testing the value of the @array in a scalar context is sufficient. The defined function makes little sense on any data type other than a $scalar.

[quidity]

The answer here does depend a little bit on what you mean by 'empty'. The earlier answers only tell you if an array has any elements, but not tell you what they contain.

If by empty you mean 'only contains defined elements' then you will need the following test instead:

my @a = (0,1,2,3);

foreach (@a) {print "'$_'\n";} # Prints each element.

print "\@a exists\n" if @a;

print "\@a is not Empty\n" if grep {defined($_)} @a;
    # Prints '@a is not empty' if any element in '@a' is defined.

my @b = (1, undef)
foreach (@b) {print "'$_'\n";}

print "\@b exists\n" if @b;

print "@b is not Empty\n" if grep {defined($_)} @b;

Of course, if you want to know if the array contains only true values, then you can get away without using the defined() bit.

Edited: Examples reworked by davido.

[rajib]

my $j = 0;

for (my $i = 0; $i <= $#array; ++$i) {
  $current = $array[$i];
  if($current == undef) {
    push @empty, $j++;
  }
}

print "undefined indices:  @empty \n";

or to put it in common perl terms

my @empties = ();
for my $i(0..$#array) {
   unless(defined $array[$i]) {
       push @empties, $i;
   }
}
print "undefined indices @empties\n";

{Editor's note: This example doesn't work as the poster thought it would. See Abigail-II's explanation here: Re: Answer: How do I test if an array is empty or not?.}

Edited by davido for clarification.

[Abigail-II]

What your code is trying to do is extracting the undefined values (or rather, the indices) from the array - which is a different question. However, your first code fragment not only finds the indices with undefined values, but anything that is 0 in numeric context, which includes 0, the empty string and the undefined value.

Your second code fragment is correct, but it can be written in a more Perlesque way:

    my @empties = grep {!defined $array [$i]} 0 .. $#array;

As for the question, just use the array in scalar context. It's empty if the array is 0 in scalar context.

Abigail