fix #510 by adding a describing skip marker on empty parameterize

CHANGELOG.rst

@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@
 
 **Bug Fixes**
 
-*
+* fix `#510`_: skip tests where one parameterize dimension was empty
+  thanks Alex Stapleton for the Report and `@RonnyPfannschmidt`_ for the PR
 
 * Fix win32 path issue when puttinging custom config file with absolute path
   in ``pytest.main("-c your_absolute_path")``.

_pytest/python.py

@@ -990,6 +990,13 @@ class Metafunc(FuncargnamesCompatAttr):
                 argvalues = [(val,) for val in argvalues]
         if not argvalues:
             argvalues = [(_notexists,) * len(argnames)]
+            # we passed a empty list to parameterize, skip that test
+            #
+            newmark = pytest.mark.skip(
+                reason='argument listing for %r was empty' % argnames)
+            newmarks = newkeywords.setdefault(0, {})
+            newmarks[newmark.markname] = newmark
+
 
         if scope is None:
             scope = "function"

testing/python/metafunc.py

@@ -109,6 +109,13 @@ class TestMetafunc:
             metafunc.parametrize(("x","y"), [("abc", "def"),
                                              ("ghi", "jkl")], ids=["one"]))
 
+    @pytest.mark.issue510
+    def test_parametrize_empty_list(self):
+        def func( y): pass
+        metafunc = self.Metafunc(func)
+        metafunc.parametrize("y", [])
+        assert 'skip' in metafunc._calls[0].keywords
+
     def test_parametrize_with_userobjects(self):
         def func(x, y): pass
         metafunc = self.Metafunc(func)