Allow matBadge to be empty

[mackelito]

What is the expected behavior?

If matBadge is used but without a value it should still show but empty

What is the current behavior?

element is not rendered

What are the steps to reproduce?

https://stackblitz.com/edit/angular-5zk8sa?file=app/badge-overview-example.html

Which versions of Angular, Material, OS, TypeScript, browsers are affected?

Is there anything else we should know?

[crisbeto]

What is a case where you'd want to show a blank badge?

[mackelito]

When the number does not matter.. just to show it as a notification indicator.
It would broaden the use cases for the component as well :)

Kind of like the notice on the "Home" icon here:

[crisbeto]

The one on LinkedIn isn't blank either though, it has a dot in it.

[LoganDupont]

If you need an example just look at github notification icon

[jelbourn]

@mackelito does it work if you just use a space?

[mackelito]

@mackelito does it work if you just use a space?

It did not work using space... but I have not tried it with the latest release..

[crisbeto]

Maybe we should stop trimming the message if it's just whitespace?

[jelbourn]

@crisbeto ¯\(ツ)/¯

I don't feel strongly either way

[wratho]

any changes in this discussion. I would also like this to be an option. I'd be fine with an Input the the component to allow it so it is explicit and you don't have to guess at the developers intention.

[rafaelss95]

Well, I needed this in a project that I'm working on and I'm currently using matBadge="&# 8288;" (space added after hash to not reference an issue) and it seems to work until now.

[jelbourn]

Is there a strong reason not to use use a CSS class with a ::before or ::after style to add a little indicator? Looking at this again, using matBadge seems like overkill.

[jelbourn]

Closing this since you can accomplish a notification dot with plain CSS without needing matBadge

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