Python Morsels: Checking for an empty list in Python

Table of contents

1. Checking the length of a list
2. Evaluating the truthiness of a list
3. Comparing for equality with an empty list
4. Truthiness checks are non-emptiness checks on lists

Checking the length of a list

One way to check whether a list is empty is to check the length of that list. If the length is 0, the list must be empty:

>>> numbers=[]>>> iflen(numbers)==0:... print("The list is empty.")...The list is empty.

Or if we wanted to check for non-empty lists, we could make sure that the length is greater than 0:

>>> iflen(numbers)>0:... print("The list is NOT empty.")...

But this is actually not the most typical way to check for an empty list in Python.

Evaluating the truthiness of a list

Many Python users prefer to …