Humanizr/Humanizer · error · ArgumentException

Input words cannot be empty.

Error message

Input words cannot be empty.

What it means

VigesimalCompoundWordsToNumberConverter.TryConvert throws this ArgumentException at line 30 for null, empty, or whitespace input. It sits in the Try overload, so both ToNumber and TryToNumber throw on empty phrases; the converter needs at least one token to apply the base-20 grammar.

Source

Thrown at src/Humanizer/Localisation/WordsToNumber/VigesimalCompoundWordsToNumberConverter.cs:30

    {
        if (!TryConvert(words, out var parsedValue, out var unrecognizedWord))
        {
            throw new ArgumentException($"Unrecognized number word: {unrecognizedWord}");
        }

        return parsedValue;
    }

    /// <inheritdoc />
    public override bool TryConvert(string words, out long parsedValue) =>
        TryConvert(words, out parsedValue, out _);

    /// <inheritdoc />
    public override bool TryConvert(string words, out long parsedValue, out string? unrecognizedWord)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(words))
        {
            throw new ArgumentException("Input words cannot be empty.");
        }

        var normalized = TokenMapWordsToNumberNormalizer.Normalize(words, TokenMapNormalizationProfile.LowercaseReplacePeriodsWithSpaces);
        var negative = false;

        foreach (var negativePrefix in profile.NegativePrefixes)
        {
            if (!normalized.StartsWith(negativePrefix, StringComparison.Ordinal))
            {
                continue;
            }

            negative = true;
            normalized = normalized[negativePrefix.Length..].Trim();
            break;
        }

        if (profile.OrdinalMap.TryGetValue(normalized, out var value) ||

View on GitHub (pinned to ffc2b77c0f)

Solutions

1. Pre-check !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(words) before calling any number method.
2. Handle blank as a caller-side condition (skip or reprompt).
3. Normalize upstream so empty never reaches the converter.

Example fix

// before
input.TryToNumber(out var n, culture);  // throws if input is null/whitespace
// after
if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(input) && input.TryToNumber(out var n, culture))
    Use(n);

if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(words))
    return Result.Skip();
var ok = words.TryToNumber(out var n, culture);

try { var n = words.ToNumber(culture); }
catch (ArgumentException ex) when (ex.Message == "Input words cannot be empty.")
    { /* blank input */ }

When it happens

Trigger: Passing null, string.Empty, or whitespace to any number method on a vigesimal-compound locale. The IsNullOrWhiteSpace check at line 29 fires before normalization.

Common situations: Blank fields, trimmed-to-empty values, unvalidated external input, empty substitution for missing data.

Related errors

• Input words cannot be empty.
• Input words cannot be empty.
• Input words cannot be empty.
• Input words cannot be empty.
• Input words cannot be empty.

AI-assisted analysis of Humanizr/Humanizer@ffc2b77c0f (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3c2f4352256d45d0. Report an issue: GitHub.