diff --git a/icu4c/source/i18n/fpositer.cpp b/icu4c/source/i18n/fpositer.cpp
index a654248495..eb405f9c34 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/i18n/fpositer.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/i18n/fpositer.cpp
@@ -62,7 +62,10 @@ void FieldPositionIterator::setData(UVector32 *adopt, UErrorCode& status) {
   // Verify that adopt has valid data, and update status if it doesn't.
   if (U_SUCCESS(status)) {
     if (adopt) {
-      if ((adopt->size() % 3) != 0) {
+      if (adopt->size() == 0) {
+        delete adopt;
+        adopt = NULL;
+      } else if ((adopt->size() % 3) != 0) {
         status = U_ILLEGAL_ARGUMENT_ERROR;
       } else {
         for (int i = 1; i < adopt->size(); i += 3) {
diff --git a/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/ufieldpositer.h b/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/ufieldpositer.h
index 75c7a97475..8dfa3df5a4 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/ufieldpositer.h
+++ b/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/ufieldpositer.h
@@ -86,8 +86,8 @@ U_NAMESPACE_END
 
 /**
  * Get information for the next field in the formatted string to which this
- * UFieldPositionIterator currently applies, or return FALSE if there are
- * no more fields.
+ * UFieldPositionIterator currently applies, or return a negative value if there
+ * are no more fields.
  * @param fpositer
  *          A pointer to the UFieldPositionIterator object containing iteration
  *          state for the format fields.
diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/cdattst.c b/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/cdattst.c
index 1671566072..3faa32ce4e 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/cdattst.c
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/cdattst.c
@@ -1748,6 +1748,7 @@ static void TestParseErrorReturnValue(void) {
 static const char localeForFields[] = "en_US";
 /* zoneGMT[]defined above */
 static const UDate date2015Feb25 = 1424841000000.0; /* Wednesday, February 25, 2015 at 5:10:00 AM GMT */
+static const UChar patNoFields[] = { 0x0027, 0x0078, 0x0078, 0x0078, 0x0027, 0 }; /* "'xxx'" */
 
 typedef struct {
     int32_t field;
@@ -1837,6 +1838,19 @@ static void TestFormatForFields(void) {
                 }
             }
 
+            udat_applyPattern(udfmt, FALSE, patNoFields, -1);
+            status = U_ZERO_ERROR;
+            ulen = udat_formatForFields(udfmt, date2015Feb25, ubuf, kUBufFieldsLen, fpositer, &status);
+            if ( U_FAILURE(status) ) {
+                log_err("udat_formatForFields with no-field pattern fails, status %s\n", u_errorName(status));
+            } else {
+                field = ufieldpositer_next(fpositer, &beginPos, &endPos);
+                if (field >= 0) {
+                    log_err("udat_formatForFields with no-field pattern as \"%s\"; expect field < 0, get field %d range %d-%d\n",
+                            aescstrdup(ubuf, ulen), field, beginPos, endPos);
+                }
+            }
+
             ucal_close(ucal);
             udat_close(udfmt);
         }