diff --git a/devel/coccinelle/string-empty.cocci b/devel/coccinelle/string-empty.cocci
index d51f69ca8a..16e6b1756a 100644
--- a/devel/coccinelle/string-empty.cocci
+++ b/devel/coccinelle/string-empty.cocci
@@ -1,30 +1,45 @@
 /*
  * Copyright 2020 the Pacemaker project contributors
  *
  * The version control history for this file may have further details.
  *
  * This source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2
  * or later (GPLv2+) WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY.
  *
  * Catch string comparisons where the pcmk__str_empty function could be used
  * instead.  Note that we are only catching uses involving identifiers (not
  * expressions), but I think this is probably fine - we are likely not using
  * the same expression multiple times in a single line of code.  If some are
  * found, it's easy enough to add another block here.
  */
 
 virtual internal
 
 @ string_empty depends on internal @
-identifier I;
+type t;
+identifier func !~ "pcmk__str_empty";
+char* I;
 @@
+t func(...) {
+...
 (
 - (I == NULL) || (strlen(I) == 0)
 + pcmk__str_empty(I)
 |
 - (I == NULL) || !strlen(I)
 + pcmk__str_empty(I)
 |
 - (I == NULL) || (I[0] == 0)
 + pcmk__str_empty(I)
+|
+- (I == NULL) || (*I == 0)
++ pcmk__str_empty(I)
+|
+- (I == NULL) || (I[0] == '\0')
++ pcmk__str_empty(I)
+|
+- (I == NULL) || (*I == '\0')
++ pcmk__str_empty(I)
 )
+...
+}