translate.instant with empty string throws error: Parameter "key" required

[ghiscoding]

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[x] feature request

Current behavior Doing a translate.instant('') on an empty string throws an error of Parameter "key" required but doing the same on a white space doesn't throw an error. This is thrown by the instant() function itself

public instant(key: string | Array<string>, interpolateParams?: Object): string | any {
        if(!isDefined(key) || !key.length) {
            throw new Error(`Parameter "key" required`);
        }

Expected/desired behavior Don't throw error on empty string, I often initialize my form elements with empty string and wish to have the translation working. Now because of this issue I need to check if it's not empty string then translate else it throws a load of errors.

Reproduction of the problem Just put this anywhere in your code: console.log(this.translate.instant(''))

What is the expected behavior? No error in console

What is the motivation / use case for changing the behavior?

Please tell us about your environment: Windows 10, Angular 5

• ngx-translate version: 9.1.1

• Angular version: 5.0.0

• Browser: all

[cookieksv]

I have the same issue. Would be perfect if the "instant" method was simply returning the same passed to it empty value (or undefined, or null, etc).

[tibistibi]

have the same error, it breaks the page and nothing is translated. on my page it happens sometimes, i guess when it loads to fast or not fast enough. although i have a check that the object is present.

[ghiscoding]

The only thing I found to bypass this issue was to pass a white space, so if the translation key is incorrect then instead use a white space. Something along this

const myKey = '';
this.translate.instant(myKey || ' '); // this will use the white space since myKey is null or empty

This code avoids lots of problem, but it's too bad that this was never fixed at the source 😿

[tibistibi]

thanks, that will work but i rather stupid.... why is this issue not take care of :disappointed:

[boisamazing]

@ghiscoding

Thanks for your workaround, and it solves the same error with translate.stream where it is parsing an empty array. So a white space in array is required:

const myArray = [" "]; this.translate.stream(myArray);

QuickDirty, but it did save lots of time. Have to say that this issue is worth to be taken care. 🚶

[gnesher]

@ocombe I'd be happy to open a pull request and change if (!isDefined(key) || !key.length) { throw new Error(Parameter "key" required); } to something like if (!isDefined(key) || !key.length) { return '' } if this makes sense ?

[harleenarora]

there is any pull request to fix this?

[Dev-it-a-dev]

Any updates on this?

[hoangnguyen-inspectorio]

One vote for this update

[autonomobil]

insane that this is not fixed yet. Wrapping the key in an array also works

const myKey = '';
this.translateService.instant([myKey]); // this will use the array and this works