diff --git a/src/ui/public/stringify/__tests__/_date.js b/src/ui/public/stringify/__tests__/_date.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..5d95bd8aae7461
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/ui/public/stringify/__tests__/_date.js
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+describe('Date Format', function () {
+  var fieldFormats;
+  var expect = require('expect.js');
+  var ngMock = require('ngMock');
+
+  beforeEach(ngMock.module('kibana'));
+  beforeEach(ngMock.inject(function (Private) {
+    fieldFormats = Private(require('ui/registry/field_formats'));
+  }));
+
+  it('decoding an undefined or null date should return an empty string', function () {
+    var DateFormat = fieldFormats.getType('date');
+    var date = new DateFormat({
+      pattern: 'dd-MM-yyyy'
+    });
+    expect(date.convert(null)).to.be('');
+    expect(date.convert(undefined)).to.be('');
+  });
+
+});
diff --git a/src/ui/public/stringify/__tests__/index.js b/src/ui/public/stringify/__tests__/index.js
index 4a1cb93ffb7216..e299349e95b7a7 100644
--- a/src/ui/public/stringify/__tests__/index.js
+++ b/src/ui/public/stringify/__tests__/index.js
@@ -4,4 +4,5 @@ describe('Stringify Component', function () {
   require('./_source');
   require('./_string');
   require('./_url');
+  require('./_date');
 });
diff --git a/src/ui/public/stringify/types/Date.js b/src/ui/public/stringify/types/Date.js
index e33c9425c5c6ec..c80645bf15cd98 100644
--- a/src/ui/public/stringify/types/Date.js
+++ b/src/ui/public/stringify/types/Date.js
@@ -45,6 +45,9 @@ define(function (require) {
       if (this._memoizedPattern !== pattern) {
         this._memoizedPattern = pattern;
         this._memoizedConverter = _.memoize(function converter(val) {
+          if (val === null || val === undefined) {
+            return '';
+          }
           return moment(val).format(pattern);
         });
       }