How to Check if a List Is Empty in Python

What you’ll build or solve

You’ll check if a Python list is empty and handle both cases cleanly.

When this approach works best

Checking if a list is empty works well when you:

• Guard before accessing items like items[0] or items[-1].
• Decide what to display, like showing “No results” when a search returns nothing.
• Skip work early when there’s nothing to process.

Skip this approach when you only want to loop. A for item in items loop already does nothing for an empty list.

Prerequisites

• Python 3 installed
• You know what a list is

Step-by-step instructions

1) Use the list directly in a condition

This is the standard Python way. Empty lists are falsy, non-empty lists are truthy.

items = []

if items:
    print("Has items")
else:
    print("Empty")

What to look for: if items: checks the list itself, not the values inside it. A list like [0, 0] is still not empty.

2) Use len() when you need a number

Use len() when your logic depends on the count, not just empty vs not empty.

items = ["a", "b", "c"]

if len(items) == 0:
    print("Empty")
else:
    print(f"Count: {len(items)}")

What to look for: len(items) returns an integer, so you can compare it to thresholds like < 3 or >= limit.

Examples you can copy

Example 1: Guard before indexing

results = []

if results:
    first = results[0]
else:
    first = None

print(first)

Example 2: Print a message when there are no matches

matches = ["file1.txt", "file2.txt"]

if not matches:
    print("No matches found")
else:
    for m in matches:
        print(m)

Example 3: Loop safely without an explicit check

Sometimes the cleanest option is to just loop.

items = []

for x in items:
    print(x)

print("Done")

Example 4: Provide a default value when the list is empty

scores = []
top_score = max(scores) if scores else 0

print(top_score)

Example 5: Validate before doing a pairwise operation

names = ["Amina", "Luka"]
scores = []

if not names or not scores:
    print("Missing data")
else:
    pairs = list(zip(names, scores))
    print(pairs)

Example 6: Use early returns in functions

In functions, checking at the top and returning early keeps the main logic cleaner.

def average(nums):
    if not nums:
        return None
    return sum(nums) / len(nums)

print(average([]))
print(average([10, 20, 30]))

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Mistake 1: Comparing to [] everywhere

What you might do:

items = []

if items == []:
    print("Empty")

Why it’s not ideal: it works, but it’s less idiomatic and awkward if the value might be None.

Correct approach:

items = []

if not items:
    print("Empty")

If the value might be None, handle that intentionally:

items = None

if not items:
    print("Empty or None")

Mistake 2: Checking the wrong thing

What you might do:

items = [0, 0, 0]

if not items[0]:
    print("Empty")

Why it breaks: this checks the first element, not the list. A non-empty list can still contain falsy values like 0 or "".

Correct approach:

items = [0, 0, 0]

if not items:
    print("Empty")
else:
    print("Not empty")

Mistake 3: Calling len() on something that isn’t a list

What you might do:

items = None
print(len(items))

Why it breaks: None has no length, so Python raises TypeError.

Correct approach: decide how you want to treat None.

items = None

if not items:
    print("Empty or None")

Or be strict:

items = None

if items is None:
    raise ValueError("items must be a list")

Troubleshooting

If you see IndexError: list index out of range, you indexed into an empty list. Add a guard like if items: before items[0].

If if items: behaves unexpectedly, confirm items is actually a list. Print type(items).

If you see TypeError: object of type ... has no len(), you called len() on the wrong type, often None.

If your loop never runs, the list might be empty. Print the list or its length to confirm.

Quick recap

• Use if items: for the standard empty-list check.
• Use len(items) == 0 when you need a numeric count check.
• Guard before indexing with items[0] or items[-1].
• You usually don’t need a check before for item in items.
• Decide how you want to handle None if it can appear instead of a list.