diff --git a/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/core/CCorePlugin.java b/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/core/CCorePlugin.java
index 940d9e4e1af..be865101187 100644
--- a/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/core/CCorePlugin.java
+++ b/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/core/CCorePlugin.java
@@ -1030,20 +1030,19 @@ public class CCorePlugin extends Plugin {
 //	}
 
 	/**
-	 * Helper function, returning the contenttype for a filename
-	 * Same as: <p><p>
+	 * Helper function, returning the content type for a filename
+	 * Same as: <pre>
 	 * 	getContentType(null, filename)
-	 * <br>
-	 * @param project
-	 * @param name
-	 * @return
+	 * </pre>
+	 * @param filename
+	 * @return the content type found, or <code>null</code>
 	 */
 	public static IContentType getContentType(String filename) {
 		return CContentTypes.getContentType(null, filename);
 	}
 	
 	/**
-	 * Returns the content type for a filename. The method respects project
+	 * Returns the content type for a filename. The method respects
 	 * project specific content type definitions. The lookup prefers case-
 	 * sensitive matches over the others.
 	 * @param project a project with possible project specific settings. Can be <code>null</code>
diff --git a/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/CContentTypes.java b/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/CContentTypes.java
index f20d65e37f3..9ffe97e40a8 100644
--- a/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/CContentTypes.java
+++ b/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/CContentTypes.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*******************************************************************************
- * Copyright (c) 2006 Wind River Systems, Inc. and others.
+ * Copyright (c) 2006, 2007 Wind River Systems, Inc. and others.
  * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
  * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
  * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
@@ -39,6 +39,9 @@ public class CContentTypes {
 	 * Implementation for {@link CCorePlugin#getContentType(IProject, String)}.
 	 */
 	public static IContentType getContentType(IProject project, String filename) {
+		if (filename == null) {
+			return null;
+		}
 		IContentTypeMatcher matcher= null;
 		IScopeContext scopeCtx= null;
 		boolean preferCpp= true;