Re: test -v for array does not work as documented

[Ulrich Mueller]

>>>>> On Wed, 19 Feb 2020, Chet Ramey wrote:

> On 2/19/20 7:00 AM, Ulrich Mueller wrote:
>> Bash Version: 5.0
>> Patch Level: 16
>> Release Status: release
>> 
>> Description:
>> The GNU Bash Reference Manual Version 5.0 says about test -v:
>> '-v VARNAME'
>> True if the shell variable VARNAME is set (has been
>> assigned a value).
>> 
>> However, it doesn't always return true when VARNAME is an
>> (indexed or associative) array that has been assigned a value.

> If you refer to an array variable without the subscript, it's equivalent
> to referencing element 0.

That doesn't seem obvious from the documentation for -v.

So, is there any syntax that allows to test if a value has been assigned
to the array variable? Especially, to distinguish VARNAME=() (empty
array) from VARNAME being unset?