BUG: Eval scopes ignoring empty dictionaries (#47084)

doc/source/whatsnew/v1.5.0.rst

@@ -824,6 +824,7 @@ Metadata
 
 Other
 ^^^^^
+- Bug in :meth:`pd.eval`, :meth:`DataFrame.eval` and :meth:`DataFrame.query` where passing empty ``local_dict`` or ``global_dict`` was treated as passing ``None`` (:issue:`47084`)
 
 .. ***DO NOT USE THIS SECTION***
 

pandas/core/computation/scope.py

@@ -133,11 +133,13 @@ def __init__(
             # shallow copy here because we don't want to replace what's in
             # scope when we align terms (alignment accesses the underlying
             # numpy array of pandas objects)
-            scope_global = self.scope.new_child((global_dict or frame.f_globals).copy())
+            scope_global = self.scope.new_child(
+                (global_dict if global_dict is not None else frame.f_globals).copy()
+            )
             self.scope = DeepChainMap(scope_global)
             if not isinstance(local_dict, Scope):
                 scope_local = self.scope.new_child(
-                    (local_dict or frame.f_locals).copy()
+                    (local_dict if local_dict is not None else frame.f_locals).copy()
                 )
                 self.scope = DeepChainMap(scope_local)
         finally:

pandas/tests/computation/test_eval.py

@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
 from pandas.core.computation.ops import (
     ARITH_OPS_SYMS,
     SPECIAL_CASE_ARITH_OPS_SYMS,
+    UndefinedVariableError,
     _binary_math_ops,
     _binary_ops_dict,
     _unary_math_ops,
@@ -1659,6 +1660,18 @@ def test_no_new_globals(self, engine, parser):
         gbls2 = globals().copy()
         assert gbls == gbls2
 
+    def test_empty_locals(self, engine, parser):
+        x = 1
+        msg = "name 'x' is not defined"
+        with pytest.raises(UndefinedVariableError, match=msg):
+            pd.eval("x + 1", engine=engine, parser=parser, local_dict={})
+
+    def test_empty_globals(self, engine, parser):
+        msg = "name '_var_s' is not defined"
+        e = "_var_s * 2"
+        with pytest.raises(UndefinedVariableError, match=msg):
+            pd.eval(e, engine=engine, parser=parser, global_dict={})
+
 
 @td.skip_if_no_ne
 def test_invalid_engine():