diff --git a/mlir/lib/Parser/AttributeParser.cpp b/mlir/lib/Parser/AttributeParser.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Parser/AttributeParser.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Parser/AttributeParser.cpp
@@ -531,6 +531,13 @@
     return nullptr;
   }
 
+  // Handle the case where no elements were parsed.
+  if (!hexStorage.hasValue() && storage.empty() && type.getNumElements()) {
+    p.emitError(loc) << "parsed zero elements, but type (" << type
+                     << ") expected at least 1";
+    return nullptr;
+  }
+
   // Handle complex types in the specific element type cases below.
   bool isComplex = false;
   if (ComplexType complexTy = eltType.dyn_cast<ComplexType>()) {
diff --git a/mlir/test/IR/invalid.mlir b/mlir/test/IR/invalid.mlir
--- a/mlir/test/IR/invalid.mlir
+++ b/mlir/test/IR/invalid.mlir
@@ -687,6 +687,11 @@
 
 // -----
 
+// expected-error@+1 {{parsed zero elements, but type ('tensor<i64>') expected at least 1}}
+#attr = dense<> : tensor<i64>
+
+// -----
+
 func @elementsattr_toolarge2() -> () {
 ^bb0:
   "foo"(){bar = dense<[-777]> : tensor<1xi8>} : () -> () // expected-error {{integer constant out of range}}