Using unset vs. setting a variable to empty

Mostly you don't see a difference, unless you are using set -u:

/home/user1> var=""
/home/user1> echo $var

/home/user1> set -u
/home/user1> echo $var

/home/user1> unset var
/home/user1> echo $var
-bash: var: unbound variable

So really, it depends on how you are going to test the variable.

I will add that my preferred way of testing if it is set is:

[[ -n $var ]]  # True if the length of $var is non-zero

or

[[ -z $var ]]  # True if zero length

So, by unset'ting the array index 2, you essentially remove that element in the array and decrement the array size (?).

I made my own test..

foo=(5 6 8)
echo ${#foo[*]}
unset foo
echo ${#foo[*]}

Which results in..

3
0

So just to clarify that unset'ting the entire array will in fact remove it entirely.

As has been said, using unset is different with arrays as well

$ foo=(4 5 6)

$ foo[2]=

$ echo ${#foo[*]}
3

$ unset foo[2]

$ echo ${#foo[*]}
2