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In zsh, personal preference. In other shells $array may only expand to the first element, thus ${#array} would output 1

So, if you want to be little more portable between shells specifying the [@] would work.

In zsh, $array expands in the same way $array[*] would, which differs depending on if they appear within quotes or not. Should they appear within double quotes "$array" would expand and be delimited by the first character of IFS which by default is space

zsh% touch {1..10}; a=(*)
zsh% printf '<%s> ' $a
<1> <10> <2> <3> <4> <5> <6> <7> <8> <9>     
zsh% printf '<%s> ' "$a"
<1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9> 
zsh% IFS=:
zsh% print "$a"
1:10:2:3:4:5:6:7:8:9
zsh% print "$a[@]"
1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
zsh% IFS=$' \t\n'
zsh% rm "$a"
rm: cannot remove ‘1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9’: No such file or directory

Changing IFS is rarely needed which prompted my original "Personal preferences" response. But just to clarify there is a few differences between the two when used without the # flag, they are is just very subtle.

I prefer $array[@] also since it's behavior doesn't change depending on whether or not it appears within quotes. That and internal whitespace that an element may have is preserved.

In zsh, personal preference. In other shells $array may only expand to the first element, thus ${#array} would output the length of the first element.

So, if you want to be little more portable between shells specifying the [@] would work.

In zsh, $array expands in the same way $array[*] would, which differs depending on if they appear within quotes or not. Should they appear within double quotes "$array" would expand and be delimited by the first character of IFS which by default is space

zsh% touch {1..10}; a=(*)
zsh% printf '<%s> ' $a
<1> <10> <2> <3> <4> <5> <6> <7> <8> <9>     
zsh% printf '<%s> ' "$a"
<1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9> 
zsh% IFS=:
zsh% print "$a"
1:10:2:3:4:5:6:7:8:9
zsh% print "$a[@]"
1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
zsh% IFS=$' \t\n'
zsh% rm "$a"
rm: cannot remove ‘1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9’: No such file or directory

Changing IFS is rarely needed which prompted my original "Personal preferences" response. But just to clarify there is a few differences between the two when used without the # flag, they are is just very subtle.

I prefer $array[@] also since it's behavior doesn't change depending on whether or not it appears within quotes. That and internal whitespace that an element may have is preserved.

In zsh, personal preference. In other shells $array may only expand to the first element, thus ${#array} would output 1

So, if you want to be little more portable between shells specifying the [@] would work.

In zsh, $array expands in the same way $array[*] would, which differs depending on if they appear within quotes or not. Should they appear within double quotes "$array" would expand and be delimited by the first character of IFS which by default is space

zsh% touch {1..10}; a=(*)
zsh% printf '<%s> ' $a
<1> <10> <2> <3> <4> <5> <6> <7> <8> <9>     
zsh% printf '<%s> ' "$a"
<1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9> 
zsh% IFS=:
zsh% print "$a"
1:10:2:3:4:5:6:7:8:9
zsh% print "$a[@]"
1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
zsh% IFS=$' \t\n'
zsh% rm "$a"
rm: cannot remove ‘1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9’: No such file or directory

Changing IFS is rarely needed which prompted my original "Personal preferences" response. But just to clarify there is a few differences between the two, they are is just very subtle.

I prefer $array[@] also since it's behavior doesn't change depending on whether or not it appears within quotes. That and internal whitespace that an element may have is preserved.

In zsh, personal preference. In other shells $array may only expand to the first element, thus ${#array} would output 1

So, if you want to be little more portable between shells specifying the [@] would work.

In zsh, $array expands in the same way $array[*] would, which differs depending on if they appear within quotes or not. Should they appear within double quotes "$array" would expand and be delimited by the first character of IFS which by default is space

zsh% touch {1..10}; a=(*)
zsh% printf '<%s> ' $a
<1> <10> <2> <3> <4> <5> <6> <7> <8> <9>     
zsh% printf '<%s> ' "$a"
<1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9> 
zsh% IFS=:
zsh% print "$a"
1:10:2:3:4:5:6:7:8:9
zsh% print "$a[@]"
1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
zsh% IFS=$' \t\n'
zsh% rm "$a"
rm: cannot remove ‘1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9’: No such file or directory

Changing IFS is rarely needed which prompted my original "Personal preferences" response. But just to clarify there is a few differences between the two when used without the # flag, they are is just very subtle.

I prefer $array[@] also since it's behavior doesn't change depending on whether or not it appears within quotes. That and internal whitespace that an element may have is preserved.

In zsh, personal preference. In other shells $array may only expand to the first element, thus ${#array} would output 1

So, if you want to be little more portable between shells specifying the [@] would work.

In zsh, $array expands in the same way $array[*] would, which differs depending on if they appear within quotes or not. Should they appear within double quotes "$array" would expand and be delimited by the first character of IFS which by default is space

zsh% touch {1..10}; a=(*)
zsh% printf '<%s> ' $a
<1> <10> <2> <3> <4> <5> <6> <7> <8> <9>     
zsh% printf '<%s> ' "$a"
<1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9> 
zsh% IFS=:
zsh% print "$a"
1:10:2:3:4:5:6:7:8:9
zsh% print "$a[@]"
1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
zsh% IFS=$' \t\n'
zsh% rm "$a"
rm: cannot remove ‘1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9’: No such file or directory

Changing IFS is rarely needed which prompted my original "Personal preferences" response. But just to clarify there is a few differences between the two, they are is just very subtle. I prefer $array[@] also since it's behavior doesn't change depending on whether or not it appears within quotes.

In zsh, personal preference. In other shells $array may only expand to the first element, thus ${#array} would output 1

So, if you want to be little more portable between shells specifying the [@] would work.

In zsh, $array expands in the same way $array[*] would, which differs depending on if they appear within quotes or not. Should they appear within double quotes "$array" would expand and be delimited by the first character of IFS which by default is space

zsh% touch {1..10}; a=(*)
zsh% printf '<%s> ' $a
<1> <10> <2> <3> <4> <5> <6> <7> <8> <9>     
zsh% printf '<%s> ' "$a"
<1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9> 
zsh% IFS=:
zsh% print "$a"
1:10:2:3:4:5:6:7:8:9
zsh% print "$a[@]"
1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
zsh% IFS=$' \t\n'
zsh% rm "$a"
rm: cannot remove ‘1 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9’: No such file or directory

Changing IFS is rarely needed which prompted my original "Personal preferences" response. But just to clarify there is a few differences between the two, they are is just very subtle. 

I prefer $array[@] also since it's behavior doesn't change depending on whether or not it appears within quotes. That and internal whitespace that an element may have is preserved.