diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
index 309050f30874cf2361e06bb5386e45eb168e124c..3e4099a6df51495ca4838f33a9061ab0a25b0329 100755
--- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
+++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
@@ -2182,8 +2182,10 @@ sub process {
 				# Find out how long the conditional actually is.
 				my @newlines = ($c =~ /\n/gs);
 				my $cond_lines = 1 + $#newlines;
+				my $stat_real = '';
 
-				my $stat_real = raw_line($linenr, $cond_lines);
+				$stat_real = raw_line($linenr, $cond_lines)
+							. "\n" if ($cond_lines);
 				if (defined($stat_real) && $cond_lines > 1) {
 					$stat_real = "[...]\n$stat_real";
 				}