diff --git a/base/regex.jl b/base/regex.jl
index 709099640bfd9..66ec0faa816ba 100644
--- a/base/regex.jl
+++ b/base/regex.jl
@@ -109,8 +109,8 @@ each_match_overlap(r::Regex, s::String) = RegexMatchIterator(r,s,true)
 
 function split(s::String, regex::Regex, include_empty::Bool, limit::Integer)
     s = cstring(s)
+    strs = String[]
     i = j = start(s)
-    strs = typeof(s)[]
     while !done(s,i) && (limit == 0 || length(strs) < limit)
         m = match(regex,s,j)
         if m == nothing
diff --git a/base/string.jl b/base/string.jl
index 5fc0079bec4b8..ea871da4a8842 100644
--- a/base/string.jl
+++ b/base/string.jl
@@ -773,8 +773,8 @@ rpad(s, n::Integer) = rpad(string(s), n, " ")
 
 function split(s::String, delims, include_empty::Bool)
     i = 1
-    strs = String[]
     len = length(s)
+    strs = String[]
     while true
         tokstart = tokend = i
         while !done(s,i)
@@ -797,7 +797,6 @@ end
 
 split(s::String) = split(s, (' ','\t','\n','\v','\f','\r'), false)
 split(s::String, x) = split(s, x, true)
-split(s::String, x::Char, incl::Bool) = split(s, (x,), incl)
 
 function print_joined(strings, delim, last)
     i = start(strings)