Yes. Lots of Famous Really Good Programmers (tm) will tell you to always initialize vars---but since I'm not one of them, I'll tell you to at least try and make it a habit since it will save you grief later on. My rule is that if there is a chance that I'll check the value before I stuff something in it, I'll usually set it to a known value...

--hsm

"Never try to teach a pig to sing...it wastes your time and it annoys the pig."