Question to empty structure objects

[herb]

Hello Phil,

I work with version ExifTool 12.37 on a Windows 10 system.

After "solving" the problems of my question "problems with -tagname^=", see https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=13083.0
I continued with the tests of my application.

By accident I created an empty structure object with command

Code Select Expand

exiftool.exe -xmp-iptcext:creator={} test.xmp
I could also create a structure list with an empty object (for an user-defined structure list) with command

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exiftool.exe -xmp:userstructlist=[{}] test.xmp

Of course I also tried to display these empty list/object with exiftool.exe -xmp:all -a -struct  test.xmp
but the output was empty.

Now I have the questions:
- is this a feature (by design) or is it an error?

I think, it would be very helpful that such empty lists/objects are displayed.

Thanks for your help in advance
Best regards
herb

[Phil Harvey]

You're right that ExifTool doesn't return empty structures in XMP.  Changing this may be very difficult, but I'll take a look to see if it is possible.

- Phil