diff --git a/db/dbformat.h b/db/dbformat.h
index 013028a76d..f990040511 100644
--- a/db/dbformat.h
+++ b/db/dbformat.h
@@ -139,7 +139,11 @@ class InternalKey {
     AppendInternalKey(&rep_, ParsedInternalKey(user_key, s, t));
   }
 
-  void DecodeFrom(const Slice& s) { rep_.assign(s.data(), s.size()); }
+  bool DecodeFrom(const Slice& s) {
+    rep_.assign(s.data(), s.size());
+    return !rep_.empty();
+  }
+
   Slice Encode() const {
     assert(!rep_.empty());
     return rep_;
diff --git a/db/version_edit.cc b/db/version_edit.cc
index 2385e7dfd1..cd770ef12d 100644
--- a/db/version_edit.cc
+++ b/db/version_edit.cc
@@ -86,8 +86,7 @@ void VersionEdit::EncodeTo(std::string* dst) const {
 static bool GetInternalKey(Slice* input, InternalKey* dst) {
   Slice str;
   if (GetLengthPrefixedSlice(input, &str)) {
-    dst->DecodeFrom(str);
-    return true;
+    return dst->DecodeFrom(str);
   } else {
     return false;
   }