Question

Is there a function in the .NET library that will return true or false as to whether an array is null or empty? (Similar to string.IsNullOrEmpty).

I had a look in the Array class for a function such as this but couldn’t see anything.

i.e.

var a = new string[]{};
string[] b = null;
var c = new string[]{"hello"};

IsNullOrEmpty(a); //returns true
IsNullOrEmpty(b); //returns true
IsNullOrEmpty(c); //returns false

Answer 1

There isn’t an existing one, but you could use this extension method:

/// <summary>Indicates whether the specified array is null or has a length of zero.</summary>
/// <param name="array">The array to test.</param>
/// <returns>true if the array parameter is null or has a length of zero; otherwise, false.</returns>
public static bool IsNullOrEmpty(this Array array)
{
    return (array == null || array.Length == 0);
}

Just place this in an extensions class somewhere and it’ll extend Array to have an IsNullOrEmpty method.