Index: /issm/trunk-jpl/src/wrappers/python/io/FetchPythonData.cpp
===================================================================
--- /issm/trunk-jpl/src/wrappers/python/io/FetchPythonData.cpp	(revision 24500)
+++ /issm/trunk-jpl/src/wrappers/python/io/FetchPythonData.cpp	(revision 24501)
@@ -1296,11 +1296,9 @@
 void FetchData(char** pstring,PyObject* py_string){
 
-	const char* string=NULL;
-
 	/*extract internal string: */
 	#if _PYTHON_MAJOR_ == 3
-	string=PyUnicode_AsUTF8(py_string);
+	const char* string=PyUnicode_AsUTF8(py_string);
 	#else
-	string=PyString_AsString(py_string);
+	const char* string=PyString_AsString(py_string);
 	#endif
 	/*copy string (note strlen does not include trailing NULL): */