What causes "empty slice found" in go-gorm/gorm?

Guard against empty slices before calling Create/Find, e.g. if len(users) == 0 { return }.

empty slice found

Error message

empty slice found

What it means

Error "empty slice found" thrown in go-gorm/gorm.

Source

Thrown at errors.go:37

	ErrUnsupportedRelation = errors.New("unsupported relations")
	// ErrPrimaryKeyRequired primary keys required
	ErrPrimaryKeyRequired = errors.New("primary key required")
	// ErrModelValueRequired model value required
	ErrModelValueRequired = errors.New("model value required")
	// ErrModelAccessibleFieldsRequired model accessible fields required
	ErrModelAccessibleFieldsRequired = errors.New("model accessible fields required")
	// ErrSubQueryRequired sub query required
	ErrSubQueryRequired = errors.New("sub query required")
	// ErrInvalidData unsupported data
	ErrInvalidData = errors.New("unsupported data")
	// ErrUnsupportedDriver unsupported driver
	ErrUnsupportedDriver = errors.New("unsupported driver")
	// ErrRegistered registered
	ErrRegistered = errors.New("registered")
	// ErrInvalidField invalid field
	ErrInvalidField = errors.New("invalid field")
	// ErrEmptySlice empty slice found
	ErrEmptySlice = errors.New("empty slice found")
	// ErrDryRunModeUnsupported dry run mode unsupported
	ErrDryRunModeUnsupported = errors.New("dry run mode unsupported")
	// ErrInvalidDB invalid db
	ErrInvalidDB = errors.New("invalid db")
	// ErrInvalidValue invalid value
	ErrInvalidValue = errors.New("invalid value, should be pointer to struct or slice")
	// ErrInvalidValueOfLength invalid values do not match length
	ErrInvalidValueOfLength = errors.New("invalid association values, length doesn't match")
	// ErrPreloadNotAllowed preload is not allowed when count is used
	ErrPreloadNotAllowed = errors.New("preload is not allowed when count is used")
	// ErrDuplicatedKey occurs when there is a unique key constraint violation
	ErrDuplicatedKey = errors.New("duplicated key not allowed")
	// ErrForeignKeyViolated occurs when there is a foreign key constraint violation
	ErrForeignKeyViolated = errors.New("violates foreign key constraint")
	// ErrCheckConstraintViolated occurs when there is a check constraint violation
	ErrCheckConstraintViolated = errors.New("violates check constraint")
)

View on GitHub (pinned to 1d6ce99528)

Solutions

Guard against empty slices before calling Create/Find, e.g. if len(users) == 0 { return }.
Ensure the slice passed to CreateInBatches contains at least one element.
Check that query results are non-empty before passing them to batch operations.

Example fix

Reject empty slices before batch operations: if len(items) == 0 { return nil } ; db.Create(&items)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at errors.go:37 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of go-gorm/gorm@1d6ce99528 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bc1109979d79b9c1. Report an issue: GitHub.