Yes, There will be nothing in it. If you have something/lots of things(I mean data) in it, then the purpose of creating it (to store) will not be served as you are creating it to store data. OS Just allocates specified space (say this many tracks/cylinders) to datafile and database logical structure which is nothing but tablespace in this context will be having a pointer to this file.

Try analyzing this in 2 layers: Logical layer sitting on top of physical layer. Physical layer z what you can see with your eyes... logical layer which you can't see... I mean database objects(logical) like tablespaces, tables, indexes are gone when database is shutdown. But, Physical layer like Datafiles, controlfile, redologs,parameter files exists no matter database is up/down.

[Edited by sreddy on 12-28-2000 at 08:34 PM]