title: Instantiate empty list in Robot Framework?
body: <p>In the Robot Framework user guide, it states <code> a variable value is a list or list-like, it is also possible to use it as a list variable like @{EXAMPLE}</code> and <code>There is also an empty list variable @{EMPTY}</code> but I am not able to create an empty list. In the minimally reproducible example below, no matter how I set it up I get the error, <code>TypeError: Expected argument 1 to be a list or list-like, got string instead</code> in my test case. How can I create an empty list that doesn't re-assign itself to be a string?</p>
  <pre><code>*** Settings ***
  Library             Collections
  Suite Setup         Re-instantiate List
  
  *** Variables ***
  @{shouldBeList}=    @{EMPTY}
  
  *** Test Cases ***
  Add something to the list
      Collections.Append to list      @{shouldBeList}     Test
  
  *** Keywords ***
  Re-instantiate List
      @{shouldBeList}=    Create List     ${EMPTY}
      Set Suite Variable  @{shouldBeList}     @{shouldBeList}
  
  
  # Results:
  # Add something to the list                        | FAIL |
  # TypeError: Expected argument 1 to be a list or list-like, got string instead.
  </code></pre>