When you call empty() or is_empty(), it clearly communicates the code’s intention, which is to check if the collection is
empty. Using size() == 0 for this purpose is less direct and makes the code slightly more complex.
Moreover, depending on the implementation, the size(), length(), or count() methods can have a time
complexity of O(n) where n is the number of elements in the collection. On the other hand, empty() and
is_empty() simply check if there is at least one element in the collection, which is a constant time operation, O(1).
void fun(const std::vector<int> &myVector) {
if (myVector.size() == 0) { // Noncompliant
// do something
}
}
Prefer using empty() or is_empty() to test for emptiness over size(), length(), or
count().
void fun(const std::vector<int> &myVector) {
if (myVector.empty()) {
// do something
}
}
