diff --git a/doc/ChangeLog b/doc/ChangeLog
index 2d46c08..8c3753f 100644
--- a/doc/ChangeLog
+++ b/doc/ChangeLog
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ NewsStats 0.5.0 (unreleased)
   * Add addpost (to add post data dropped by feedlog).
   * Rename postingstats.pl to poststats.pl, rename
     dopostingstats.sh accordingly, fix all references.
+  * Fix missing variable initialisation in FormatOutput().
 
 NewsStats 0.4.0 (2025-06-02)
   * Reformat $Conf{TLH} for GroupStats only.
diff --git a/lib/NewsStats.pm b/lib/NewsStats.pm
index bce70c5..a68e36d 100644
--- a/lib/NewsStats.pm
+++ b/lib/NewsStats.pm
@@ -501,6 +501,9 @@ sub FormatOutput {
   my ($Format, $Comments, $LeadIn, $Caption, $Key, $Value, $Precision, $PadField,
       $PadValue, $LastIteration) = @_;
   my ($Output);
+  # initialise $PadValue; $PadField needs not to be initialised,
+  # as access to both is gated by valid $PadField
+  $PadValue = 0 if !$PadValue;
   # create one line of output
   if ($Format eq 'dump') {
     # output as dump (key value)