From 4d104a380091e7f0a6ad15840a8b90ae13ddd3e9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nigel Horne <njh@bandsman.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2024 21:18:15 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Handle empty date fields in gedcoms

---
 gedcom | 11 +++++++++++
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)

diff --git a/gedcom b/gedcom
index 82c6351..55e81df 100755
--- a/gedcom
+++ b/gedcom
@@ -11916,6 +11916,17 @@ sub parse_date
 	}
 
 	if(my $date = $params{'date'}) {
+		if(ref($date)) {
+			# Caused by empty value, e.g.:
+			#	1 BIRT
+			#	2 DATE 
+			#	2 PLAC VERMONT
+
+			# $Data::Dumper::Maxdepth = 2;
+			# print STDERR Data::Dumper->new([$dateofbirth])->Dump();
+			# die 'BUG: date() should return a scalar, got a ', ref($dateofbirth);
+			return;
+		}
 		if(lc($date) eq 'unknown') {
 			return;
 		}