Re: Zero-length indexed arrays

[Lawrence Velázquez]

On Thu, Dec 16, 2021, at 11:01 PM, Dale R. Worley wrote:
> A bit ago I was debugging a failing script at work.  It turns out that
> when you say
>     FOO=(x y z)
> then the variable FOO is an array and is defined.  But when you say
>     FOO=()
> then the variable FOO is an array (because ${#FOO[*]} substitutes an
> integer viz. 0) but it is *not* defined (because ${FOO[*]} generates an
> error when "set -u" is in effect).

Did you mean to say that ${#FOO[*]} causes an error?  Because
${FOO[*]} does not, à la $*:

    % bash --version | head -n 1
    GNU bash, version 5.1.12(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin18.7.0)
    % bash -uc ': "${FOO[*]}"'
    % bash -uc ': "${#FOO[*]}"'
    bash: line 1: FOO: unbound variable

> It turns out that this can matter, if you do something like this:
>
>     set -u    # for safety
>     ...
>     if ...
>     then
>         FOO=(...)
>     else
>         FOO=()
>     fi
>     ...
>     FOO_PLUS=("${FOO[@]}" x y z w)

I have to assume you meant something else here as well.  This example
never causes any errors.

    % cat foo.bash; echo
    set -u

    if [[ -n "${1+set}" ]]; then
        FOO=(a b c)
    else
        FOO=()
    fi

    FOO_PLUS=("${FOO[@]}" x y z w)
    declare -p FOO_PLUS

    % bash foo.bash
    declare -a FOO_PLUS=([0]="x" [1]="y" [2]="z" [3]="w")
    % bash foo.bash woot
    declare -a FOO_PLUS=([0]="a" [1]="b" [2]="c" [3]="x" [4]="y" [5]="z" 
[6]="w")

Like ${FOO[*]}, ${FOO[@]} and $@ are exempt from ''set -u''.

-- 
vq