diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/VariantsToTable.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/VariantsToTable.java
index ebd13e843..7b4d05130 100755
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/VariantsToTable.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/VariantsToTable.java
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ public class VariantsToTable extends RodWalker<Integer, Integer> {
     protected PrintStream out;
 
     @Argument(fullName="fields", shortName="F", doc="Fields to emit from the VCF, allows any VCF field, any info field, and some meta fields like nHets", required=true)
-    public List<String> fieldsToTake = null;
+    public ArrayList<String> fieldsToTake = new ArrayList<String>();
 
     @Argument(fullName="showFiltered", shortName="raw", doc="Include filtered records")
     public boolean showFiltered = false;
diff --git a/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/VariantToTableIntegrationTest.java b/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/VariantToTableIntegrationTest.java
index a1efbf4a4..dfe33062a 100644
--- a/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/VariantToTableIntegrationTest.java
+++ b/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/VariantToTableIntegrationTest.java
@@ -40,9 +40,9 @@ public class VariantToTableIntegrationTest extends WalkerTest {
                 "-R " + hg18Reference +
                         " -B:eval,vcf " + validationDataLocation + "/soap_gatk_annotated.vcf" +
                         " -T VariantsToTable" +
-                        " -F CHROM,POS,ID,REF,ALT,QUAL,FILTER,TRANSITION,DP,SB,set,RankSumP,refseq.functionalClass*" +
+                        " -F CHROM -F POS -F ID -F REF -F ALT -F QUAL -F FILTER -F TRANSITION -F DP -F SB -F set -F RankSumP -F refseq.functionalClass*" +
                         " -L chr1 -o %s",
                 Arrays.asList("b2a3712c1bfad8f1383ffada8b5017ba"));
         executeTest("testComplexVariantsToTable", spec).getFirst();
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}