How can I check the size of a collection with JSTL?
Something like:
<c:if test="${companies.size() > 0}"> </c:if> 4 Answers
<c:if test="${companies.size() > 0}"> </c:if> This syntax works only in EL 2.2 or newer (Servlet 3.0 / JSP 2.2 or newer). If you're facing a XML parsing error because you're using JSPX or Facelets instead of JSP, then use gt instead of >.
<c:if test="${companies.size() gt 0}"> </c:if> If you're actually facing an EL parsing error, then you're probably using a too old EL version. You'll need JSTL fn:length() function then. From the documentation:
length( java.lang.Object) - Returns the number of items in a collection, or the number of characters in a string.
Put this at the top of JSP page to allow the fn namespace:
<%@ taglib prefix="fn" uri="" %> Or if you're using JSPX or Facelets:
<... xmlns:fn=""> And use like this in your page:
<p>The length of the companies collection is: ${fn:length(companies)}</p> So to test with length of a collection:
<c:if test="${fn:length(companies) gt 0}"> </c:if> Alternatively, for this specific case you can also simply use the EL empty operator:
<c:if test="${not empty companies}"> </c:if> As suggested by @Joel and @Mark Chorley in earlier comments:
${empty companies} This checks for null and empty lists/collections/arrays. It doesn't get you the length but it satisfies the example in the OP. If you can get away with it this is just cleaner than importing a tag library and its crusty syntax like gt.
You can use like this
${fn:length(numList)} use ${fn:length(companies) > 0} to check the size. This returns a boolean
