Remove empty object?

Question

below code to show title and list answer.

if (!empty($a_list)) {
                $this->section(@$a_list['title']);

                $this->output('<DIV CLASS="qa-a-list" '.@$a_list['tags'].'>', '');

...

But, when my question is no answer, html code show empty object :

<h2><span id="a_list_title"></span></h2>

<div id="a_list" class="qa-a-list"></div>

How to remove empty object when empty value?

-->sorry my English...