---
title: Types
---

Liquid objects can have one of six types:

- [String](#string)
- [Number](#number)
- [Boolean](#boolean)
- [Nil](#nil)
- [Array](#array)
- [EmptyDrop](#emptydrop)

You can initialize Liquid variables with the [assign](/tags/#assign) or [capture](/tags/#capture) tags.

## String

Declare a string by wrapping a variable's value in single or double quotes:

```liquid
{% raw %}
{% assign my_string = "Hello World!" %}
{% endraw %}
```

## Number

Numbers include floats and integers:

```liquid
{% raw %}
{% assign my_int = 25 %}
{% assign my_float = 39.756 %}
{% endraw %}
```

## Boolean

Booleans are either `true` or `false`. No quotations are necessary when declaring a boolean:

```liquid
{% raw %}
{% assign foo = true %}
{% assign bar = false %}
{% endraw %}
```

## Nil

Nil is a special empty value that is returned when Liquid code has no results. It is **not** a string with the characters "nil".

Nil is [treated as false](/basics/truthy-and-falsy) in the conditions of `if` blocks and other Liquid tags that check the truthfulness of a statement.

In the following example, if the user does not exist (that is, `user` returns `nil`), Liquid will not print the greeting:

```liquid
{% raw %}
{% if user %}
  Hello {{ user.name }}!
{% endif %}
{% endraw %}
```

Tags or outputs that return `nil` will not print anything to the page.

```liquid
{% raw %}
The current user is {{ user.name }}
{% endraw %}
```

```text
The current user is
```

## Array

Arrays hold lists of variables of any type.

### Accessing items in arrays

To access all the items in an array, you can loop through each item in the array using an [iteration tag](/tags/iteration/).

```liquid
{% raw %}
<!-- if site.users = "Tobi", "Laura", "Tetsuro", "Adam" -->
{% for user in site.users %}
  {{ user }}
{% endfor %}
{% endraw %}
```

```text
{% raw %}
Tobi Laura Tetsuro Adam
{% endraw %}
```

### Accessing specific items in arrays

You can use square bracket `[` `]` notation to access a specific item in an array. Array indexing starts at zero.

```liquid
{% raw %}
<!-- if site.users = "Tobi", "Laura", "Tetsuro", "Adam" -->
{{ site.users[0] }}
{{ site.users[1] }}
{{ site.users[3] }}
{% endraw %}
```

```text
Tobi
Laura
Adam
```

### Initializing arrays

You cannot initialize arrays using only Liquid.

You can, however, use the [split](/filters/split) filter to break a string into an array of substrings.

## EmptyDrop

An EmptyDrop object is returned if you try to access a deleted object by name. In the example below, `page_1`, `page_2` and `page_3` are all EmptyDrop objects.

```liquid
{% raw %}
{% assign variable = "hello" %}
{% assign page_1 = pages[variable] %}
{% assign page_2 = pages["does-not-exist"] %}
{% assign page_3 = pages.this-handle-does-not-exist %}
{% endraw %}
```

EmptyDrop objects only have one attribute, `empty?`, which is always *true*.

Collections and pages that *do* exist do not have an `empty?` attribute. Their `empty?` is "falsy", which means that calling it inside an if statement will return *false*. When using an `unless` statement on existing collections and pages, `empty?` will return `true`.

### Checking for emptiness

Using the `empty?` attribute, you can check to see if an object exists or not before you access any of its attributes.

```liquid
{% raw %}
{% unless pages.about.empty? %}
  <!-- This will only print if the page with handle 'about' is not empty -->
  <h1>{{ pages.frontpage.title }}</h1>
  <div>{{ pages.frontpage.content }}</div>
{% endunless %}
{% endraw %}
```

If you don't check for emptiness first, Liquid might print empty HTML elements to the page:

```html
<h1></h1>
<div></div>
```