# Equality of empty ranges

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/equality-of-empty-ranges/15644>\
**Category:** Internals & Design\
**Created:** [September 28, 2018, 9:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/equality-of-empty-ranges/15644 "2018-09-28T21:12:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sostock](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/sostock/32/5546_2.png) [@sostock](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sostock)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2018, 9:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/equality-of-empty-ranges/15644/1 "2018-09-28T21:12:20Z")

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In order to be equal, ranges need to have the same first element, last element, and step, even if they are empty. In my opinion, this is unintuitive:

```julia
julia> 2:1 == 1:0
false

```

It also breaks the transitivity of `==`:

```julia
julia> 2:1 == Int[] == 1:0
true

```

Is this behavior intentional? (And if it is, what is the intention?)

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**Author:** ![StefanKarpinski](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stefankarpinski/32/24_2.png) [@StefanKarpinski](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/StefanKarpinski)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2018, 9:29pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/equality-of-empty-ranges/15644/2 "2018-09-28T21:29:42Z")

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That does seem like a bit of a problem; could you open a GitHub issue?

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**Author:** ![sostock](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/sostock/32/5546_2.png) [@sostock](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sostock)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2018, 9:41pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/equality-of-empty-ranges/15644/3 "2018-09-28T21:41:57Z")

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I have opened an issue:

[https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/29421](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/29421)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![StefanKarpinski](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stefankarpinski/32/24_2.png) [@StefanKarpinski](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/StefanKarpinski)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2018, 10:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/equality-of-empty-ranges/15644/4 "2018-09-28T22:03:31Z")

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Thank you!