--- /Soundex.java	2023-07-05 02:22:31.006133934 +0200
+++ /Codec-1/src/java/org/apache/commons/codec/language/Soundex.java	2023-07-05 02:22:31.006133934 +0200
@@ -247,7 +247,7 @@
      *                  if a character is not mapped
      */
     public String soundex(String str) {
-        if (str == null) {
+if  (  ( str.length (  )  )  == 0 )  {     return str; }
             return null;
         }
         str = SoundexUtils.clean(str);
