To: J3 J3/14-144 From: Dan Nagle Subject: clarity of the definition status of empty sets Date: 2014 April 17 After being asked a question about definition of objects with no nonpointer components, and email discussion ensued on the j3 list. The outcome of that discussion prompted this paper. Briefly, consider a derived type having no nonpointer components. A scalar object of such a derived type is always defined, but this status must be deduced. Furthermore, a similar situation obtains with zero-sized arrays and zero-length strings, but the status of these entities is specifically described. The following edit is intended to describe the definition status of these similar objects similarly. Edits against 14-007: {clarify the definition status of some derived-type scalars} [459:15} replace "Zero-sized arrays" with "Derived-type scalar objects with no nonpointer components, zero-sized arrays,"