diff --git a/tests/data/empty/cmd_and_expected_output b/tests/data/empty/cmd_and_expected_output
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c2fe95a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/data/empty/cmd_and_expected_output
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+$ cat $TEST_DIR/empty.tsv | $TSV2TABLE
+a | b | c
+  |   |  
+A | B | C
diff --git a/tests/data/empty/empty.tsv b/tests/data/empty/empty.tsv
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1aadfd0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/data/empty/empty.tsv
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+a	b	c
+		
+A	B	C
diff --git a/tsv2table b/tsv2table
index 0780875..ed0f691 100755
--- a/tsv2table
+++ b/tsv2table
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ sub main {
     while (<>) {
         chomp;
         s/\r\z//;
-        my @row = split $options->{separator}, $_;
+        my @row = split $options->{separator}, $_, -1;
 
         for (my $i = 0; $i < scalar @row; $i++) {
             if (length($row[$i]) > ($max_column_length[$i] // 0)) {