How To Check If Array Is Empty In PowerShell? - SharePoint & Microsoft Power Platform Tutorials

An empty array can lead to unexpected results or errors in your PowerShell scripts. In this PowerShell tutorial, I will explain various methods to check if an array is empty in PowerShell. I will also show you how to check if an array contains null or empty in PowerShell.

To check if an array is empty in PowerShell, you can examine its Count or Length property. If either of these properties is equal to 0, the array is empty. For example, using $myArray.Count -eq 0 or $myArray.Length -eq 0 in an if statement will allow you to determine if $myArray contains no elements. Alternatively, you can use $myArray -eq $null or simply if (-not $myArray) to check for an empty array as well.

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Check If Array Is Empty In PowerShell

In PowerShell, an array is a data structure that stores a collection of items. These items can be of any type, including integers, strings, and objects. Sometimes, you need to verify whether an array is empty—meaning it has no elements. Here are a few methods to check if an array is empty in PowerShell:

Method 1: Using the Count Property

One of the simplest ways to check if an array is empty is by using the Count property in PowerShell. This property returns the number of elements in the PowerShell array.

# Create an empty array
$myArray = @()

# Check if the array is empty
if ($myArray.Count -eq 0) {
    Write-Host "The array is empty."
} else {
    Write-Host "The array is not empty."
}

You can see the output in the screenshot below after I executed the above PowerShell script using Visual Studio Code.

Method 2: Using the Length Property

Similar to the Count property, you can use the Length property to determine the number of elements in a PowerShell array.

Here is a complete PowerShell script to check if a PowerShell array is empty by using the length property.

# Create an empty array
$myArray = @()

# Check if the array is empty
if ($myArray.Length -eq 0) {
    Write-Host "The array is empty."
} else {
    Write-Host "The array is not empty."
}

You can see the output in the screenshot below:

Method 3: Using Conditional Statements Directly

PowerShell allows you to use the array variable in a conditional statement directly. If the array is empty, it will be evaluated as $false. Here is the PowerShell script to determine if array is empty.

# Create an empty array
$myArray = @()

# Check if the array is empty
if ($myArray) {
    Write-Host "The array is not empty."
} else {
    Write-Host "The array is empty."
}

This method is succinct and works because PowerShell treats an empty array as $false when evaluated in a boolean context.

Method 4: Combining Where-Object and Measure-Object

You can also use Where-Object to filter the array and then pipe it to Measure-Object to count the elements. This method is useful if you want to filter out specific values (like $null or empty strings) before counting.

# Create an array with a mix of null, empty, and non-empty strings
$myArray = $null, "", "PowerShell", $null

# Check if the array is empty after filtering out null and empty strings
if ($myArray | Where-Object { $_ -ne $null -and $_ -ne "" } | Measure-Object).Count -eq 0 {
    Write-Host "The array is empty."
} else {
    Write-Host "The array is not empty."
}

Here’s a complete PowerShell script that demonstrates each method to check if an array in empty in PowerShell.

# Define an array
$myArray = @()

# Method 1: Using Count
if ($myArray.Count -eq 0) {
    Write-Host "Method 1: The array is empty."
}

# Method 2: Using Length
if ($myArray.Length -eq 0) {
    Write-Host "Method 2: The array is empty."
}

# Method 3: Using conditional statement directly
if (-not $myArray) {
    Write-Host "Method 3: The array is empty."
}

# Method 4: Using Where-Object and Measure-Object
if ($myArray | Where-Object { $_ } | Measure-Object).Count -eq 0 {
    Write-Host "Method 4: The array is empty."
}

When you run this script with an empty array, it will output that the array is empty for each method.

PowerShell check if an array contains null or empty

In PowerShell, you may sometimes need to check if an array contains any null or empty elements, which is slightly different from checking if the entire array is empty. Now, let us check different methods to check if an array contains null or empty in PowerShell.

Using `Where-Object`

The Where-Object cmdlet is useful for filtering arrays based on certain conditions. You can use it to check if any elements are $null or an empty string ("") in PowerShell.

# Assume $myArray is your array
$nullOrEmpty = $myArray | Where-Object { -not $_ -or $_ -eq "" }

if ($nullOrEmpty) {
    Write-Host "Array contains null or empty elements."
} else {
    Write-Host "Array does not contain null or empty elements."
}

In this example, -not $_ checks for $null values and $_ -eq "" checks for empty strings. If $nullOrEmpty has any items after the Where-Object filter, it means the original array contained null or empty elements.

Using `foreach` Loop

You can also iterate through each element in the PowerShell array and check for null or empty values using a foreach loop.

# Assume $myArray is your array
$containsNullOrEmpty = $false

foreach ($item in $myArray) {
    if (-not $item -or $item -eq "") {
        $containsNullOrEmpty = $true
        break
    }
}

if ($containsNullOrEmpty) {
    Write-Host "Array contains null or empty elements."
} else {
    Write-Host "Array does not contain null or empty elements."
}

The loop breaks as soon as it finds a null or empty element, setting $containsNullOrEmpty to $true.

Using `Any` Method

If you’re working with PowerShell 3.0 or later, you can use the Any method from LINQ, which can be more concise.

# Assume $myArray is your array
$containsNullOrEmpty = [System.Linq.Enumerable]::Any([System.Collections.Generic.List[object]]$myArray, {[string]::IsNullOrEmpty($_)})

if ($containsNullOrEmpty) {
    Write-Host "Array contains null or empty elements."
} else {
    Write-Host "Array does not contain null or empty elements."
}

This method uses type casting to treat $myArray as a generic list and then applies the Any method with a condition that checks for null or empty strings.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you’ve learned several methods to check if an array is empty in PowerShell. I have explained here the below 4 methods to check if an array is empty in PowerShell.

Using the Count Property
Using the Length Property
Using Conditional Statements Directly
Combining Where-Object and Measure-Object

I have also explained a few methods to check if a PowerShell array contains null or empty elements.