diff --git a/gcc/ada/ChangeLog b/gcc/ada/ChangeLog
index 815c8b229b37..1cf49090e3f2 100644
--- a/gcc/ada/ChangeLog
+++ b/gcc/ada/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2005-01-26  Laurent GUERBY <laurent@guerby.net>
+
+	PR ada/19414
+	* i-cobol.adb (Valid_Numeric): Handle zero length case.
+	
 2005-01-20  Richard Henderson  <rth@redhat.com>
 
 	* Makefile.in (alpha-linux, LIBGNAT_TARGET_PAIRS): Use
diff --git a/gcc/ada/i-cobol.adb b/gcc/ada/i-cobol.adb
index 7dc1f851bed8..38de23d8119d 100644
--- a/gcc/ada/i-cobol.adb
+++ b/gcc/ada/i-cobol.adb
@@ -632,6 +632,10 @@ package body Interfaces.COBOL is
       return   Boolean
    is
    begin
+      if Item'Length = 0 then
+         return False;
+      end if;
+
       --  All character positions except first and last must be Digits.
       --  This is true for all the formats.