diff --git a/src/collections/string_pool.rs b/src/collections/string_pool.rs
index 5a31cb902ff697833f222b25997d0e90574810b4..80ced6346d462aef57339049fc57f06395c1e473 100644
--- a/src/collections/string_pool.rs
+++ b/src/collections/string_pool.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-use std::ptr::null_mut;
+use std::ptr::{null_mut, null};
 use std::hash::{Hash, Hasher};
 use std::marker::PhantomData;
 use std::fmt::{Debug, Display, Formatter, Result as FmtResult};
@@ -29,6 +29,12 @@ impl<'a> StringRef<'a> {
         StringRef{ data, length, _phantom: PhantomData }
     }
 
+    /// `new_empty` creates a empty StringRef. It is a null pointer with a
+    /// length of zero.
+    pub(crate) fn new_empty() -> StringRef<'static> {
+        StringRef{ data: null(), length: 0, _phantom: PhantomData }
+    }
+
     pub fn as_str(&self) -> &'a str {
         unsafe {
             let slice = std::slice::from_raw_parts::<'a, u8>(self.data, self.length);
@@ -161,6 +167,13 @@ unsafe impl Send for StringPool {}
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
 
+    #[test]
+    fn display_empty_string_ref() {
+        // Makes sure that null pointer inside StringRef will not cause issues
+        let v = StringRef::new_empty();
+        let val = format!("{}{:?}", v, v);
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn test_string_just_fits() {
         let large = "0".repeat(SLAB_SIZE);