Dealing with Empty Brackets in a List

Question

I have a large list with varying constituent parts. Some of these are like this:

i.e. graphlist[[34]]

{{{33, 0.0115084}}, {{33, 0.00539003}}, {{33, 0.0158185}}, 
 {{33, 0.0136278}}, {{33, 0.00756737}}, {{33, 0.0017506}}, 
 {{33, 0.038599}}, {{33, 0.00538894}}, {{33, 0.00656522}},
 {{33, 0.00310004}}, {{33, 0.00151645}}, {{33, 7.75*10^-7}},
 {{33, 0.00205609}}, {{33, 0.00125328}}}

Whereas others are like this:

graphlist[[1]]

{{}, {{0, 0.00342769}}, {{0, 0.00503465}}, {}, 
 {{0, 0.000187}}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}}

Because they are all part of a long list, I'm trying to find a command that can do the following. On a list without any null values, I am running this command to get the second part:

graphlist[[34]][[All, 1]][[All, 2]]

> {0.0115084, 0.00539003, 0.0158185, 0.0136278, 0.00756737, 0.0017506, 
> 0.038599, 0.00538894, 0.00656522, 0.00310004, 0.00151645, 
>  7.75*10^-7, 0.00205609, 0.00125328}

But if I run a similar command on the list with nulls, the error message: "Part::partw: Part 1 of {} does not exist. >>" ensues. My goal is to similarly get output that would look like this:

{0,0.00342769,0.00503465,0,0.000187,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0}

Is there a way to construct a command that simply returns a 'zero' value for empty brackets? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

With

l1 = {{{33, 0.0115084}}, {{33, 0.00539003}}, {{33, 0.0158185}}, {{33, 
     0.0136278}}, {{33, 0.00756737}}, {{33, 0.0017506}}, {{33, 
     0.038599}}, {{33, 0.00538894}}, {{33, 0.00656522}}, {{33, 
     0.00310004}}, {{33, 0.00151645}}, {{33, 7.75*10^-7}}, {{33, 
     0.00205609}}, {{33, 0.00125328}}};
l2 = {{}, {{0, 0.00342769}}, {{0, 0.00503465}}, {}, {{0, 
     0.000187}}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}};

you can do this:

If[# === {}, 0, #[[1, 2]]] & /@ l1
{0.0115084, 0.00539003, 0.0158185, 0.0136278, 0.00756737, 0.0017506, 0.038599, 0.00538894, 0.00656522, 0.00310004, 0.00151645, 7.75*10^-7, 0.00205609, 0.00125328}


If[# === {}, 0, #[[1, 2]]] & /@ l2
{0, 0.00342769, 0.00503465, 0, 0.000187, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}

Answer 2

l = {{}, {{0, 0.00342769}}, {{0, 0.00503465}}, {}, {{0, 0.000187}}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}}
List /@ Sequence @@@ l
(*
-> {{{0, 0.00342769}}, {{0, 0.00503465}}, {{0, 0.000187}}}
*)

Or

l /. {} -> 0
(*
{0, {{0, 0.00342769}}, {{0, 0.00503465}}, 0, {{0, 0.000187}}, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}
*)

Or

Last /@ Sequence @@@ (l /. {} -> {{0}})
(*
-> {0, 0.00342769, 0.00503465, 0, 0.000187, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}
*)

Depending on what you really want as a result :)

Answer 3

If you wish to get rid of the {}, then Mike's answer using DeleteCases works in this particular case, but will fail in general, because it will not remove {} that's nested deeper (such as {{}}). Using ReplaceAll or /. also fails in some cases because it removes it from inside any head. For example, if you have {a, {}, {{}}, f[b, {}]}, the expected behaviour is to not remove the {} from inside f. The proper way to do it, as outlined in this answer on Stack Overflow is:

expr = {a, {}, {{}}, f[b, {}]};
Replace[expr, x_List :> DeleteCases[x, {}], {0, Infinity}]
(* {a, f[b, {}]} *)

So for your expression in graphlist[[1]], it would give:

Replace[graphlist[[1]], x_List :> DeleteCases[x, {}], {0, Infinity}]
(* {{{0, 0.00342769}}, {{0, 0.00503465}}, {{0, 0.000187}}} *)

EDIT

An alternative using ReplaceAll could be

expr /. {i : Except[_List] :> i, l_ /; Flatten[l] === {} :> Sequence[]}

or more compactly using ReplaceRepeated (probably not as efficient)

expr //. {i : Except[_List] :> i, {} :> Sequence[]}

Answer 4

Why not delete the {} before carrying out any further analysis?

newgraphlist = 
 DeleteCases[{{}, {{0, 0.00342769}}, {{0, 0.00503465}}, {}, {{0, 
     0.000187}}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}}, {}]

...but if you want zeros then you can use a rule replacement

graphlist /. {} -> 0

In your final example it looks like you are taking all the second elements so

newgraphlist = graphlist /. {} -> {{0, 0}}
newgraphlist[[All, 1, 2]]

Answer 5

With

list = {{}, {{0, 0.00342769`}}, {{0, 0.00503465`}}, {}, {{0, 0.000187`}}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}};

Several alternatives in addition to previous answers:

Last @@@ (list /. {} -> {{0, 0}})

gives

(* {0, 0.00342769, 0.00503465, 0, 0.000187, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0} *)

So do

list //. {{} -> {{0, 0}}, {{_, x_}} :> x}

and

Replace[list, {{} -> 0, {{_, x_}} :> x}, {1}]

the latter thanks to Mr.Wizard.