diff --git a/Parser/parsetok.c b/Parser/parsetok.c
index 386b82fea61..bdd51f380bf 100644
--- a/Parser/parsetok.c
+++ b/Parser/parsetok.c
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ int Py_TabcheckFlag;
 
 /* Forward */
 static node *parsetok(struct tok_state *, grammar *, int, perrdetail *, int);
+static void initerr(perrdetail *err_ret);
 
 /* Parse input coming from a string.  Return error code, print some errors. */
 node *
@@ -28,13 +29,7 @@ PyParser_ParseStringFlags(char *s, grammar *g, int start,
 {
 	struct tok_state *tok;
 
-	err_ret->error = E_OK;
-	err_ret->filename = NULL;
-	err_ret->lineno = 0;
-	err_ret->offset = 0;
-	err_ret->text = NULL;
-	err_ret->token = -1;
-	err_ret->expected = -1;
+	initerr(err_ret);
 
 	if ((tok = PyTokenizer_FromString(s)) == NULL) {
 		err_ret->error = E_NOMEM;
@@ -68,11 +63,7 @@ PyParser_ParseFileFlags(FILE *fp, char *filename, grammar *g, int start,
 {
 	struct tok_state *tok;
 
-	err_ret->error = E_OK;
-	err_ret->filename = filename;
-	err_ret->lineno = 0;
-	err_ret->offset = 0;
-	err_ret->text = NULL;
+	initerr(err_ret);
 
 	if ((tok = PyTokenizer_FromFile(fp, ps1, ps2)) == NULL) {
 		err_ret->error = E_NOMEM;
@@ -185,3 +176,15 @@ parsetok(struct tok_state *tok, grammar *g, int start, perrdetail *err_ret,
 
 	return n;
 }
+
+static void
+initerr(perrdetail *err_ret)
+{
+	err_ret->error = E_OK;
+	err_ret->filename = NULL;
+	err_ret->lineno = 0;
+	err_ret->offset = 0;
+	err_ret->text = NULL;
+	err_ret->token = -1;
+	err_ret->expected = -1;
+}