How to tell if a string is not defined in a Bash shell script

Question

If I want to check for the null string I would do

[ -z $mystr ]

but what if I want to check whether the variable has been defined at all? O

Answer 1

another option: the "list array indices" expansion:

$ unset foo
$ foo=
$ echo ${!foo[*]}
0
$ foo=bar
$ echo ${!foo[*]}
0
$ foo=(bar baz)
$ echo ${!foo[*]}
0 1

the only time this expands to the empty string is when foo is unset, so you can check it with the string conditional:

$ unset foo
$ [[ ${!foo[*]} ]]; echo $?
1
$ foo=
$ [[ ${!foo[*]} ]]; echo $?
0
$ foo=bar
$ [[ ${!foo[*]} ]]; echo $?
0
$ foo=(bar baz)
$ [[ ${!foo[*]} ]]; echo $?
0

should be available in any bash version >= 3.0