title: How to Create an Empty SelectList
body: <p>I have the folloiwng action method:</p>
  
  <pre><code>public JsonResult LoadSitesByCustomerName(string customername)
  {
      var customerlist = repository.GetSDOrg(customername)
                                   .OrderBy(a =&gt; a.NAME)
                                   .ToList();
      var CustomerData;
      CustomerData = customerlist.Select(m =&gt; new SelectListItem()
      {
          Text = m.NAME,
          Value = m.NAME.ToString(),
      });
      return Json(CustomerData, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but currently i got the following error on <code>var CustomerData;</code>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>implicitly typed local variables must be initialized
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>so i am not sure how i can create an empty SelectList to assign it to the var variable ?
  Thanks</p>