diff --git a/bytes.hh b/bytes.hh
index 9d1a0689b9..2999abde01 100644
--- a/bytes.hh
+++ b/bytes.hh
@@ -84,9 +84,12 @@ struct appending_hash<bytes_view> {
 };
 
 inline int32_t compare_unsigned(bytes_view v1, bytes_view v2) {
-    auto n = memcmp(v1.begin(), v2.begin(), std::min(v1.size(), v2.size()));
+  auto size = std::min(v1.size(), v2.size());
+  if (size) {
+    auto n = memcmp(v1.begin(), v2.begin(), size);
     if (n) {
         return n;
     }
+  }
     return (int32_t) (v1.size() - v2.size());
 }
diff --git a/compound_compat.hh b/compound_compat.hh
index e8e8b03f1d..8b825e30d3 100644
--- a/compound_compat.hh
+++ b/compound_compat.hh
@@ -148,8 +148,8 @@ public:
                 _type.begin(k1), _type.end(k1),
                 _type.begin(k2), _type.end(k2),
                 [] (const bytes_view& c1, const bytes_view& c2) -> int {
-                    if (c1.size() != c2.size()) {
-                        return c1.size() < c2.size() ? -1 : 1;
+                    if (c1.size() != c2.size() || !c1.size()) {
+                        return c1.size() < c2.size() ? -1 : c1.size() ? 1 : 0;
                     }
                     return memcmp(c1.begin(), c2.begin(), c1.size());
                 });