packer/website/content/docs/templates/hcl_templates/functions/collection/compact.mdx

---
page_title: compact function reference
description: The `compact` function removes empty string elements from a list. Learn how to use the `compact` function in Packer templates.
---

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> [!IMPORTANT]  
> **Documentation Update:** Product documentation previously located in `/website` has moved to the [`hashicorp/web-unified-docs`](https://github.com/hashicorp/web-unified-docs) repository, where all product documentation is now centralized. Please make contributions directly to `web-unified-docs`, since changes to `/website` in this repository will not appear on developer.hashicorp.com.
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# `compact` Function

`compact` takes a list of strings and returns a new list with any empty string
elements removed.

## Examples

```shell-session
> compact(["a", "", "b", "c"])
[
  "a",
  "b",
  "c",
]
```