diff --git a/src/stc/stc.cpp b/src/stc/stc.cpp
index 1e4c609889..f630177258 100644
--- a/src/stc/stc.cpp
+++ b/src/stc/stc.cpp
@@ -5038,6 +5038,7 @@ wxCharBuffer wxStyledTextCtrl::GetTextRangeRaw(int startPos, int endPos)
     tr.lpstrText = buf.data();
     tr.chrg.cpMin = startPos;
     tr.chrg.cpMax = endPos;
+    tr.lpstrText[0] = '\0'; // initialize with 0 in case the range is invalid
     SendMsg(SCI_GETTEXTRANGE, 0, (sptr_t)&tr);
     return buf;
 }
diff --git a/src/stc/stc.cpp.in b/src/stc/stc.cpp.in
index f2a1dc5fb7..3ef93376f8 100644
--- a/src/stc/stc.cpp.in
+++ b/src/stc/stc.cpp.in
@@ -744,6 +744,7 @@ wxCharBuffer wxStyledTextCtrl::GetTextRangeRaw(int startPos, int endPos)
     tr.lpstrText = buf.data();
     tr.chrg.cpMin = startPos;
     tr.chrg.cpMax = endPos;
+    tr.lpstrText[0] = '\0'; // initialize with 0 in case the range is invalid
     SendMsg(SCI_GETTEXTRANGE, 0, (sptr_t)&tr);
     return buf;
 }