diff --git a/Polyhedron_IO/examples/Polyhedron_IO/off_bbox.cpp b/Polyhedron_IO/examples/Polyhedron_IO/off_bbox.cpp
index e42ea7f8f07..0bc281588c5 100644
--- a/Polyhedron_IO/examples/Polyhedron_IO/off_bbox.cpp
+++ b/Polyhedron_IO/examples/Polyhedron_IO/off_bbox.cpp
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ bool  unitcube  = false;
 // ------------------------------------------------------
 int main( int argc, char **argv) {
     int n = 0; // number of filenames
-    char *filename[1];
+    char *filename[1] = { NULL }; // stop compiler warning (too hard to rewrite the code to avoid it)
     bool help = false;
     for (int i = 1; i < argc; i++) { // check commandline options
         if ( strcmp( "-v", argv[i]) == 0)