I think the other commenter’s point is you can use 2 fields to distinguish between the first field being specified as empty vs absent (or whatever terms you prefer).
E.g.
- type.specified => “”
- type.unspecified => empty
The same technique can be used to disambiguate between 0 and empty.
E.g.
- type.specified => “”
- type.unspecified => empty
The same technique can be used to disambiguate between 0 and empty.