[excel] check if array is empty (vba excel)

These if ... then statements are getting the wrong results in my opinion. The first is returning the value 'false' when it should be 'true'. The fourth returns the right value. The second and third return an error.

Sub empty_array()
  Dim arr1() As Variant

  If IsEmpty(arr1) Then
    MsgBox "hey"
  End If

  If IsError(UBound(arr1)) Then
    MsgBox "hey"
  End If

  If IsError(Application.match("*", (arr1), 0)) Then
    MsgBox "hey"
  End If

  ReDim arr1(1)
  arr1(1) = "hey"

  If IsEmpty(arr1) Then
    MsgBox "hey"
  End If
End Sub

Arr1 becomes an array of 'Variant' by the first statement of your code:

Dim arr1() As Variant

Array of size zero is not empty, as like an empty box exists in real world.

If you define a variable of 'Variant', that will be empty when it is created.

Following code will display "Empty".

Dim a as Variant

If IsEmpty(a) then
  MsgBox("Empty")
Else
  MsgBox("Not Empty")
End If

Above methods didn´t work for me. This did:

  Dim arrayIsNothing As Boolean

    On Error Resume Next
    arrayIsNothing = IsNumeric(UBound(YOUR_ARRAY)) And False
    If Err.Number <> 0 Then arrayIsNothing = True
    Err.Clear
    On Error GoTo 0

    'Now you can test:
    if arrayIsNothing then ...

@jeminar has the best solution above.

I cleaned it up a bit though.

I recommend adding this to a FunctionsArray module

• isInitialised=false is not needed because Booleans are false when created
• On Error GoTo 0 wrap and indent code inside error blocks similar to with blocks for visibility. these methods should be avoided as much as possible but ... VBA ...

Function isInitialised(ByRef a() As Variant) As Boolean
    On Error Resume Next
    isInitialised = IsNumeric(UBound(a))
    On Error GoTo 0
End Function

Adding into this: it depends on what your array is defined as. Consider:

dim a() as integer
dim b() as string
dim c() as variant

'these doesn't work
if isempty(a) then msgbox "integer arrays can be empty"
if isempty(b) then msgbox "string arrays can be empty"

'this is because isempty can only be tested on classes which have an .empty property

'this do work
if isempty(c) then msgbox "variants can be empty"

So, what can we do? In VBA, we can see if we can trigger an error and somehow handle it, for example

dim a() as integer
dim bEmpty as boolean

bempty=false

on error resume next
bempty=not isnumeric(ubound(a))
on error goto 0

But this is really clumsy... A nicer solution is to declare a boolean variable (a public or module level is best). When the array is first initialised, then set this variable. Because it's a variable declared at the same time, if it loses it's value, then you know that you need to reinitialise your array. However, if it is initialised, then all you're doing is checking the value of a boolean, which is low cost. It depends on whether being low cost matters, and if you're going to be needing to check it often.

option explicit

'declared at module level
dim a() as integer
dim aInitialised as boolean

sub DoSomethingWithA()
if not aInitialised then InitialiseA
'you can now proceed confident that a() is intialised
end sub

sub InitialiseA()
'insert code to do whatever is required to initialise A
'e.g. 
redim a(10)
a(1)=123
'...
aInitialised=true
end sub

The last thing you can do is create a function; which in this case will need to be dependent on the clumsy on error method.

function isInitialised(byref a() as variant) as boolean
isInitialised=false
on error resume next
isinitialised=isnumeric(ubound(a))
end function

I would do this as

if isnumeric(ubound(a)) = False then msgbox "a is empty!"

The problem with VBA is that there are both dynamic and static arrays...

Dynamic Array Example

Dim myDynamicArray() as Variant

Static Array Example

Dim myStaticArray(10) as Variant
Dim myOtherStaticArray(0 To 10) as Variant

Using error handling to check if the array is empty works for a Dynamic Array, but a static array is by definition not empty, there are entries in the array, even if all those entries are empty.

So for clarity's sake, I named my function "IsZeroLengthArray".

    Public Function IsZeroLengthArray(ByRef subject() As Variant) As Boolean
        'Tell VBA to proceed if there is an error to the next line.
        On Error Resume Next
    
        Dim UpperBound As Integer
        Dim ErrorNumber As Long
        Dim ErrorDescription As String
        Dim ErrorSource As String
    
        'If the array is empty this will throw an error because a zero-length 
          'array has no UpperBound (or LowerBound).
        'This only works for dynamic arrays.  If this was a static array there 
          'would be both an upper and lower bound.
        UpperBound = UBound(subject)


        'Store the Error Number and then clear the Error object 
         'because we want VBA to treat unintended errors normally
        ErrorNumber = Err.Number
        ErrorDescription = Err.Description
        ErrorSource = Err.Source
        Err.Clear
        On Error GoTo 0
    
        'Check the Error Object to see if we have a "subscript out of range" error.  
          'If we do (the number is 9) then we can assume that the array is zero-length.
        If ErrorNumber = 9 Then
            IsZeroLengthArray = True

        'If the Error number is something else then 9 we want to raise 
        'that error again...
        ElseIf ErrorNumber <> 0 Then
            Err.Raise ErrorNumber, ErrorSource, ErrorDescription

        'If the Error number is 0 then we have no error and can assume that the
         'array is not of zero-length
        ElseIf ErrorNumber = 0 Then
            IsZeroLengthArray = False
        End If
    End Function

I hope that this helps others as it helped me.

this worked for me:

Private Function arrIsEmpty(arr as variant)
    On Error Resume Next
    arrIsEmpty = False
    arrIsEmpty = IsNumeric(UBound(arr))
End Function