diff --git a/tools/bpf/bpftool/bash-completion/bpftool b/tools/bpf/bpftool/bash-completion/bpftool
index c56545e87b0d..3f78e6404589 100644
--- a/tools/bpf/bpftool/bash-completion/bpftool
+++ b/tools/bpf/bpftool/bash-completion/bpftool
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ _bpftool_map_update_map_type()
     local type
     type=$(bpftool -jp map show $keyword $ref | \
         command sed -n 's/.*"type": "\(.*\)",$/\1/p')
-    printf $type
+    [[ -n $type ]] && printf $type
 }
 
 _bpftool_map_update_get_id()