From 2c6462d377313c1a76cf1fecbf244e7b6f73c6be Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: arvi1000 <2406749+arvi1000@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2024 13:20:13 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] epmc_search: populate the hit_count attribute even with zero
 results

---
 R/epmc_search.r | 5 ++++-
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/R/epmc_search.r b/R/epmc_search.r
index 20e929c..b9c503d 100644
--- a/R/epmc_search.r
+++ b/R/epmc_search.r
@@ -104,7 +104,10 @@ epmc_search <- function(query = NULL,
   hits <- epmc_hits(query, synonym = synonym)
   if (hits == 0) {
     message("There are no results matching your query")
-    md <- NULL
+    # return an empty tibble
+    md <- tibble::tibble()
+    # populate the hit_count attribute even with zero results
+    attr(md, "hit_count") <- hits
   } else {
     limit <- as.integer(limit)
     limit <- ifelse(hits <= limit, hits, limit)