--- /SoundexUtils.java	2023-07-05 02:28:55.886152483 +0200
+++ /Codec-1/src/java/org/apache/commons/codec/language/SoundexUtils.java	2023-07-05 02:28:55.886152483 +0200
@@ -39,8 +39,9 @@
 	 */
     static String clean(String str) {
         if (str == null || str.length() == 0) {
-            return str;
-        }
+ 
+return str; 
+ 
         int len = str.length();
         char[] chars = new char[len];
         int count = 0;
