diff --git a/cmake/modules/OpenVDBUtils.cmake b/cmake/modules/OpenVDBUtils.cmake
index f64eda6f2..f79862b83 100644
--- a/cmake/modules/OpenVDBUtils.cmake
+++ b/cmake/modules/OpenVDBUtils.cmake
@@ -157,7 +157,9 @@ function(OPENVDB_ABI_VERSION_FROM_PRINT OPENVDB_PRINT)
   endif()
 
   set(_OpenVDB_ABI)
-  string(REGEX REPLACE ".*abi([0-9]*).*" "\\1" _OpenVDB_ABI ${_VDB_PRINT_VERSION_STRING})
+  if (_VDB_PRINT_VERSION_STRING)
+    string(REGEX REPLACE ".*abi([0-9]*).*" "\\1" _OpenVDB_ABI ${_VDB_PRINT_VERSION_STRING})
+  endif ()
   if(${_OpenVDB_ABI} STREQUAL ${_VDB_PRINT_VERSION_STRING})
     set(_OpenVDB_ABI "")
   endif()