diff --git a/base/strings/basic.jl b/base/strings/basic.jl
index 21a706bee25cd..5126aa73a6772 100644
--- a/base/strings/basic.jl
+++ b/base/strings/basic.jl
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ julia> "Hello " * "world"
 (.*){T<:AbstractString}(v::Vector{T},s::AbstractString) = [i*s for i in v]
 (.*){T<:AbstractString}(s::AbstractString,v::Vector{T}) = [s*i for i in v]
 
+one{T<:AbstractString}(::Union{T,Type{T}}) = convert(T, "")
+
 length(s::DirectIndexString) = endof(s)
 
 """
diff --git a/test/strings/basic.jl b/test/strings/basic.jl
index aa1ccc2559ec6..949fabb9af2f4 100644
--- a/test/strings/basic.jl
+++ b/test/strings/basic.jl
@@ -416,6 +416,10 @@ foobaz(ch) = reinterpret(Char, typemax(UInt32))
 @test ["b","c"].*"a" == ["ba","ca"]
 @test ["a","b"].*["c" "d"] == ["ac" "ad"; "bc" "bd"]
 
+@test one(String) == ""
+@test prod(["*" for i in 1:3]) == "***"
+@test prod(["*" for i in 1:0]) == ""
+
 # Make sure NULL pointers are handled consistently by String
 @test_throws ArgumentError unsafe_string(Ptr{UInt8}(0))
 @test_throws ArgumentError unsafe_string(Ptr{UInt8}(0), 10)