[python] How to check if a list is empty in Python?

The API I'm working with can return empty [] lists.

The following conditional statements aren't working as expected:

if myList is not None: #not working
    pass

if myList is not []: #not working
    pass

What will work?

This question is related to python list

The answer is


if not myList:
  print "Nothing here"

Empty lists evaluate to False in boolean contexts (such as if some_list:).


I like Zarembisty's answer. Although, if you want to be more explicit, you can always do:

if len(my_list) == 0:
    print "my_list is empty"