Question

I have a problem which i’m trying to solve, I’ve been trying to fetch my data from an intent using mRowId below which I’ve been constantly returned a NullPointerException from fetchDrug() on LogCat.

Doing some troubleshooting using debugging, I’ve realized my variable mRowId is not Null and is pointing to something but I don’t know what its pointing.

How can i check what is my variable mRowId pointing ? Or will normally such variables be gibberish that is incomprehensible?

@Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        setContentView(R.layout.drug_info);

        //Defining the views
        mDrugText = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.drug);
        mContentText = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.content);

        Bundle extras = getIntent().getExtras();

        mRowId = extras.getLong(DrugsDbAdapter.KEY_ROWID);

        if(mRowId == null) {

            Log.e("mRowId is null", "ok");

        } else {

        Cursor drug = mDbHelper.fetchDrug(mRowId);

        //Managing Cursor to pluck values to display
        startManagingCursor(drug);

        mDrugText.setText(drug.getString(drug.getColumnIndexOrThrow(DrugsDbAdapter.KEY_DRUG)));

        mContentText.setText(drug.getString(drug.getColumnIndexOrThrow(DrugsDbAdapter.KEY_CONTENT)));

    }
    }

Answer 1

Instead of printf, use the existing log functionality in the SDK.

Output will appear in the logcat window of Eclipse (probably best option, since it’s reasonably real-time and you can filter the display), or you can pull the logs off the device/emulator manually.

For example:

Log.i ( "MyApp", "Drug = " + drug.getString ( drug.getColumnIndexOrThrow ( DrugsDbAdapter.KEY_DRUG ) ) );