new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/test_null_assign.m
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2008 Jaroslav Hajek
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
+## your option) any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+%!test
+%! a = 1:3; a(:) = []; assert (size (a), [0, 0])
+%!test
+%! a = 1:3; a(1:3) = []; assert (size (a), [1, 0])
+%!test
+%! a = (1:3).'; a(1:3) = []; assert (size (a), [0, 1])
+%!test
+%! a = ones (3); a(:,:) = []; assert (size (a), [0, 3])
+%!test
+%! a = ones (3); a(1:3,:) = []; assert (size (a), [0, 3])
+%!test
+%! a = ones (3); a(:,1:3) = []; assert (size (a), [3, 0])
+%!test
+%! a = ones (3); fail ("a(1:2,1:2) = []", ".*");
+%!test
+%! a = ones (3); fail ("a(1:3,1:3) = []", ".*");
+