diff --git a/mlir/lib/IR/AsmPrinter.cpp b/mlir/lib/IR/AsmPrinter.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/IR/AsmPrinter.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/IR/AsmPrinter.cpp
@@ -2042,7 +2042,10 @@
 /// represented as a string prefixed with '@'. The reference is surrounded with
 /// ""'s and escaped if it has any special or non-printable characters in it.
 static void printSymbolReference(StringRef symbolRef, raw_ostream &os) {
-  assert(!symbolRef.empty() && "expected valid symbol reference");
+  if (symbolRef.empty()) {
+    os << "@<<INVALID EMPTY SYMBOL>>";
+    return;
+  }
   os << '@';
   printKeywordOrString(symbolRef, os);
 }