REMOVE_EMPTY

The REMOVE_EMPTY function removes all empty and NULL values from a given List.

This function takes any List as input. It outputs another List: the given List, with all empty and NULL values removed.

Declaration

REMOVE_EMPTY(list) -> filtered_list

Parameters

list (required, type: List)
A List containing any number of items. These items can be of any type and do not need to be the same type as each other.

Return Values

filtered_list (type: List)
The List that results when all empty or NULL values are removed from the given List.

Examples

The following example takes a List of text types and removes all empty strings:

REMOVE_EMPTY(
  [
    "not empty",
    "",
    "also not empty",
    "",
    "",
    "this last one isn't empty"
  ]
) 
->
[
  "not empty",
  "also not empty",
  "this last one isn't empty"
]

THE REMOVE_EMPTY function can parse Lists that contain values of any type, and the data types of each instance within a list do not need to match. All empty Objects, strings, Lists, and NULL values will be removed:

REMOVE_EMPTY(
  [
    {  },
    { "object": "not empty" },
    [  ],
    [
      "this",
      "List",
      "is",
      "not",
      "empty"
    ],
    "",
    "not an empty string",
    1,
    NULL
  ]
)
->
[
  {
    "object": "not empty"
  },
  [
    "this",
    "List",
    "is",
    "not",
    "empty"
  ],
  "not an empty string",
  1
]

Values such as the Number 0 or the Boolean FALSE do not count as empty values:

REMOVE_EMPTY([ 0, FALSE ]) -> [0, FALSE]

The REMOVE_EMPTY function only removes empty or NULL items from the List given as input. If one of items within that List is a List or Object that contains an empty or NULL value, the REMOVE_EMPTY function will not remove it. For example, if the REMOVE_EMPTY function is given a List with two items: an empty List, and a List containing two items: NULL and an empty List, the REMOVE_EMPTY function will behave as follows:

REMOVE_EMPTY([ [  ], [ NULL, [  ] ] ]) -> [ [ NULL, [  ] ] ]

Note that the returned List has only a single item, but that none of the empty or NULL values have been removed from it.