diff --git a/hashes.js b/hashes.js
index f400c12..280a4ce 100644
--- a/hashes.js
+++ b/hashes.js
@@ -294,11 +294,11 @@
       // public method for encoding
       this.encode = function(input) {
         var i, j, triplet,
-          output = '',
-          len = input.length;
+          output = '';
 
         pad = pad || '=';
         input = (utf8) ? utf8Encode(input) : input;
+        len = input.length;
 
         for (i = 0; i < len; i += 3) {
           triplet = (input.charCodeAt(i) << 16) | (i + 1 < len ? input.charCodeAt(i + 1) << 8 : 0) | (i + 2 < len ? input.charCodeAt(i + 2) : 0);