diff --git a/lib/tokenize.cpp b/lib/tokenize.cpp
index fd253a2f1ad..506568d1a3b 100644
--- a/lib/tokenize.cpp
+++ b/lib/tokenize.cpp
@@ -7450,9 +7450,9 @@ void Tokenizer::simplifyVarDecl(Token * tokBegin, const Token * const tokEnd, co
             else if (Token::Match(varName, "%name% [")) {
                 tok2 = varName->next();
 
-                while (Token::Match(tok2->link(), "] ,|=|["))
+                while (Token::Match(tok2->link(), "] [,=[{]"))
                     tok2 = tok2->link()->next();
-                if (!Token::Match(tok2, "=|,"))
+                if (!Token::Match(tok2, "[=,{]"))
                     tok2 = nullptr;
                 if (tok2 && tok2->str() == "=") {
                     while (tok2 && tok2->str() != "," && tok2->str() != ";") {
@@ -7522,9 +7522,11 @@ void Tokenizer::simplifyVarDecl(Token * tokBegin, const Token * const tokEnd, co
                         varTok = varTok->next();
                     if (!varTok)
                         syntaxError(tok2); // invalid code
-                    TokenList::insertTokens(eq, varTok, 2);
-                    eq->str(";");
-                    eq->isSplittedVarDeclEq(true);
+                    if (eq->str() == "=") {
+                        TokenList::insertTokens(eq, varTok, 2);
+                        eq->str(";");
+                        eq->isSplittedVarDeclEq(true);
+                    }
 
                     // "= x, "   =>   "= x; type "
                     if (tok2->str() == ",") {
diff --git a/test/testtokenize.cpp b/test/testtokenize.cpp
index d698ca5ce1a..b872a152fa0 100644
--- a/test/testtokenize.cpp
+++ b/test/testtokenize.cpp
@@ -295,6 +295,7 @@ class TestTokenizer : public TestFixture {
         TEST_CASE(simplifyInitVar2);
         TEST_CASE(simplifyInitVar3);
         TEST_CASE(simplifyInitVar4);
+        TEST_CASE(simplifyInitVar5);
 
         TEST_CASE(bitfields1);
         TEST_CASE(bitfields2);
@@ -4678,6 +4679,11 @@ class TestTokenizer : public TestFixture {
                       "}", tokenizeAndStringify(code));
     }
 
+    void simplifyInitVar5() { // #14218
+        const char code[] = "int c[1]{}, b;";
+        ASSERT_EQUALS("int c [ 1 ] { } ; int b ;", tokenizeAndStringify(code));
+    }
+
     void bitfields1() {
         const char code1[] = "struct A { bool x : 1; };";
         ASSERT_EQUALS("struct A { bool x ; } ;", tokenizeAndStringify(code1));