diff --git a/src/documentation/content/xdocs/status.xml b/src/documentation/content/xdocs/status.xml
index e83b0f51d..7f0d31a09 100644
--- a/src/documentation/content/xdocs/status.xml
+++ b/src/documentation/content/xdocs/status.xml
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 
     <changes>
         <release version="3.8-beta4" date="2011-??-??">
+           <action dev="poi-developers" type="fix">51474 - SXSSF handling for null strings</action>
            <action dev="poi-developers" type="fix">48294 - Fixed HSSFWorkbook.setSheetOrder() to respect inter-sheet references </action>
            <action dev="poi-developers" type="fix">51448 - Avoid exception when evaluating workbooks with more than 256 sheets </action>
            <action dev="poi-developers" type="fix">51458 - Correct BitField wrapping when setting large values</action>
diff --git a/src/ooxml/java/org/apache/poi/xssf/streaming/SXSSFSheet.java b/src/ooxml/java/org/apache/poi/xssf/streaming/SXSSFSheet.java
index 96af6932b..bb5d8ac81 100644
--- a/src/ooxml/java/org/apache/poi/xssf/streaming/SXSSFSheet.java
+++ b/src/ooxml/java/org/apache/poi/xssf/streaming/SXSSFSheet.java
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@ import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.TreeMap;
 import java.util.Map;
 
-import org.apache.poi.hpsf.IllegalPropertySetDataException;
 import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.*;
 import org.apache.poi.ss.util.CellReference;
 
@@ -1402,6 +1401,10 @@ public class SXSSFSheet implements Sheet, Cloneable
 //Taken from jdk1.3/src/javax/swing/text/html/HTMLWriter.java
         protected void outputQuotedString(String s) throws IOException
         {
+            if(s == null || s.length() == 0) {
+               return;
+            }
+            
             char[] chars=s.toCharArray();
             int last = 0;
             int length=s.length();