How to test for $null array in PowerShell

I'm using an array variable in PowerShell 2.0. If it does not have a value, it will be $null, which I can test for successfully:

PS C:\> [array]$foo = $null
PS C:\> $foo -eq $null
True

But when I give it a value, the test for $null does not return anything:

PS C:\> [array]$foo = @("bar")
PS C:\> $foo -eq $null
PS C:\>

How can "-eq $null" give no results? It's either $null or it's not.

What is the correct way to determine if an array is populated vs. $null?

It's an array, so you're looking for Count to test for contents.

I'd recommend

$foo.count -gt 0

The "why" of this is related to how PSH handles comparison of collection objects

You can reorder the operands:

$null -eq $foo

Note that -eq in PowerShell is not an equivalence relation.

if($foo -eq $null) { "yes" } else { "no" }

help about_comparison_operators 

displays help and includes this text:

All comparison operators except the containment operators (-contains, -notcontains) and type operators (-is, -isnot) return a Boolean value when the input to the operator (the value on the left side of the operator) is a single value (a scalar). When the input is a collection of values, the containment operators and the type operators return any matching values. If there are no matches in a collection, these operators do not return anything. The containment operators and type operators always return a Boolean value.

If your solution requires returning 0 instead of true/false, I've found this to be useful:

PS C:\> [array]$foo = $null
PS C:\> ($foo | Measure-Object).Count
0

This operation is different from the count property of the array, because Measure-Object is counting objects. Since there are none, it will return 0.

How do you want things to behave?

If you want arrays with no elements to be treated the same as unassigned arrays, use:

[array]$foo = @() #example where we'd want TRUE to be returned
@($foo).Count -eq 0

If you want a blank array to be seen as having a value (albeit an empty one), use:

[array]$foo = @() #example where we'd want FALSE to be returned
$foo.PSObject -eq $null

If you want an array which is populated with only null values to be treated as null:

[array]$foo = $null,$null
@($foo | ?{$_.PSObject}).Count -eq 0 

NB: In the above I use $_.PSObject over $_ to avoid [bool]$false, [int]0, [string]'', etc from being filtered out; since here we're focussed solely on nulls.