diff --git a/tools/perf/util/stat-display.c b/tools/perf/util/stat-display.c
index a5d72f4a515c..0e16eecfbad8 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/stat-display.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/stat-display.c
@@ -854,7 +854,8 @@ static void printout(struct perf_stat_config *config, struct outstate *os,
 
 	if (run == 0 || ena == 0 || counter->counts->scaled == -1) {
 		if (config->metric_only) {
-			pm(config, os, METRIC_THRESHOLD_UNKNOWN, "", "", 0);
+			pm(config, os, METRIC_THRESHOLD_UNKNOWN, /*format=*/NULL,
+			   /*unit=*/NULL, /*val=*/0);
 			return;
 		}
 
@@ -909,7 +910,7 @@ static void printout(struct perf_stat_config *config, struct outstate *os,
 			perf_stat__print_shadow_stats(config, counter, uval, aggr_idx,
 						      &out, &config->metric_events);
 	} else {
-		pm(config, os, METRIC_THRESHOLD_UNKNOWN, /*format=*/NULL, /*unit=*/"", /*val=*/0);
+		pm(config, os, METRIC_THRESHOLD_UNKNOWN, /*format=*/NULL, /*unit=*/NULL, /*val=*/0);
 	}
 
 	if (!config->metric_only) {