diff --git a/libavfilter/graphparser.c b/libavfilter/graphparser.c
index 1fb1158a51..69f92237f1 100644
--- a/libavfilter/graphparser.c
+++ b/libavfilter/graphparser.c
@@ -376,7 +376,7 @@ int avfilter_parse_graph(AVFilterGraph *graph, const char *filters,
         index++;
     } while(chr == ',' || chr == ';');
 
-    if (*filters) {
+    if (chr) {
         av_log(log_ctx, AV_LOG_ERROR,
                "Unable to parse graph description substring: \"%s\"\n",
                filters - 1);