How do I select arrays that are not empty?

Why is this so tricky, what is token set to that it isn't equal to null nor an empty string?

SELECT lexemes
FROM ts_debug('This is a title')
WHERE alias = 'asciiword';

 lexemes 
---------
 {}
 {}
 {}
 {titl}
(4 rows)

Ok.. So I want to get rid of {},

SELECT lexemes
FROM ts_debug('This is a title')
WHERE alias = 'asciiword'
  AND lexemes <> '{}'
  AND lexemes <> ARRAY[]::text[]
  AND lexemes IS NOT NULL
  AND lexemes <> ARRAY[' ']
  AND lexemes <> ARRAY[null]::text[];

I knew most of these wouldn't work., but I'm totally confused why <> '{}' wouldn't work not <> ARRAY[]::text;. How do I filter this out?

The reason seems to be that empty strings in that column have array dimensions [1:0]. Should normally be NULL. See:

SELECT lexemes, array_dims(lexemes) FROM ts_debug('a title');

 lexemes | array_dims
---------+------------
 {}      | [1:0]  -- !!
         |
 {titl}  | [1:1]

Empty arrays normally have NULL as array dimensions.

SELECT '{}'::text[] AS test, array_dims('{}'::text[]);

 test    | array_dims
---------+------------
 {}      | 

Hence, the comparison lexemes = '{}'::text[] returns FALSE. Looks like a bug to me. I tested versions 8.4 - 10 Beta. It's in all versions.

As a workaround, to exclude all empty arrays including the odd case (and NULL):

SELECT *
FROM   ts_debug('This is a title')
WHERE  cardinality(lexemes) > 0;

Or compare the text representation:

...
AND    lexemes::text <> '{}';

I filed bug report #14826.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#186715, answer score: 5