Question

I am making a simple- code generator (non-random) and I’ve run into a problem. The user inputs data into 7 textfields; then contents of which are then placed into an array of type String. My code then takes that array, analyses the different elements and spits out a code that is usable (by me).

However, in my attempt to standardize the String array (aka make every element a lowercase String), it causes the entire program to stop working and I get what appears to be a null pointer exception.

My specific error message is as such:

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException
 at inventorycodeconverter.codeDisplay.calculateData(codeDisplay.java:48)
    at inventorycodeconverter.InventoryCodeConverterView.button1ActionPerformed(InventoryCodeConverterView.java:315)
    at inventorycodeconverter.InventoryCodeConverterView.access$900(InventoryCodeConverterView.java:23)
    at inventorycodeconverter.InventoryCodeConverterView$5.actionPerformed(InventoryCodeConverterView.java:211)
    at java.awt.Button.processActionEvent(Button.java:392)
    at java.awt.Button.processEvent(Button.java:360)
    at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4630)
    at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4460)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:599)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:269)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:184)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:174)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:169)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:161)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:122)

The section of code that appears to be giving the trouble is goes as such:

public void calculateData(){

     int i;
     for (i = 0; i < calculationBuffer.length; i++){ // calculationBuffer is defined and initialized elsewhere.

         calculationBuffer[i] = calculationBuffer[i].toLowerCase();// this is line 48 where the first error appears to be.
     }


     if (calculationBuffer[0].equals("cap")){
           displayBuffer[0] = "CAP"; // displayBuffer is defined and initialized elsewhere.
     }
     else {
         displayBuffer[0] = "#Error#";
     }


     if (calculationBuffer[1].equals("20/400")) {
           theTA.append("B");
     }
     else if (calculationBuffer[1].equals("20/410")){
           displayBuffer[1] = "C";
     }
     else if (calculationBuffer[1].equals("24/410")){
         displayBuffer[1] = "F";
     }
     else if (calculationBuffer[1].equals("24/415")) {
         displayBuffer[1] = "Y";
     }
     else if (calculationBuffer[1].equals("28/400")){
         displayBuffer[1] = "H";
     }
     else if (calculationBuffer[1].equals("28/415")) {
         displayBuffer[1] = "X";
     }
     else if (calculationBuffer[1].equals("28/410")) {
         displayBuffer[1] = "I";
     }
     else if (calculationBuffer[1].equals("33/400")) {
         displayBuffer[1] = "J";
     }
     else if (calculationBuffer[1].equals("38/400")) {
         displayBuffer[1] = "K";
     }
     else if (calculationBuffer[1].equals("43/400")) {
         displayBuffer[1] = "M";
     }
     else if (calculationBuffer[1].equals("45/400")) {
         displayBuffer[1] = "N";
     }
     else if (calculationBuffer[1].equals("58/400")) {
         displayBuffer[1] = "Q";
     }
     else if (calculationBuffer[1].equals("70/400")) {
         displayBuffer[1] = "S";
     }
     else if (calculationBuffer[1].equals("89/400")) {
         displayBuffer[1] = "T";
     }

 }


 public void displayData() {
      String displayString;
      displayString = Arrays.toString(displayBuffer);
      StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(displayString, ",");

      while(st.hasMoreTokens()){
          String finalText = st.nextToken();

          theTA.append(finalText);
      }
 }

Answer 1

Somewhere you have declared you array as following (probably):

String[] calculationBuffer = new String[size];

It’ll intialize all the indexes with nulls. and hence you are getting NPE.

You should fill all the indexes in a loop as following, before using the array

for(int i=0; i<size; i++)
{
    calculationBuffer[i] = "A String";
}