no-empty

An empty block is usually code that was never finished, or something a refactor left behind. An empty catch is worse, because the error disappears and nothing tells you that the call failed.

A block with a comment in it isn't reported, so you can say why it's empty. Empty function bodies aren't reported either. Use no-empty-function for those.

This rule is on by default.

Configure

On by default as a warning. To turn it off:

[lint.rules]
"no-empty" = "off" # or "error"

Every option, set to its default:

[lint.rules]
"no-empty" = ["warn", {
  allowEmptyCatch = false,
}]

Examples

Reported:

try {
  cache.clear();
} catch (error) {}

if (user.active) {
}

switch (user.role) {
}

Not reported:

try {
  cache.clear();
} catch (error) {
  // The cache is optional. A failure here changes nothing.
}

function noop() {}

Options

Option	Default	What it does
allowEmptyCatch	false	Allow an empty catch block.

try {
  cache.clear();
} catch (error) {}

Other empty blocks are still reported, including the finally of the same statement:

try {
  cache.clear();
} catch (error) {
} finally {
}