Question

I’m importing multiple XML files that have the same tag names, but some of the files are without a few of the tags.

My imports work great for all files that have every “field” (ie <title></title>), but I get java.lang.NullPointerException when I try to set a value of my class to an item that doesn’t exist in the XML file.

For example:

for(NewsItem item : parser.getParsedItems())
{
    Article a1 = new Article();
    a1.title = item.title.trim();
    a1.subtitle = item.subhead.trim();
    //...
}

This works great for most, but if one of them doesn’t have a “subhead” tag, then I get the error.

Is there some way I can check IF it’s been set or has value prior to trying to set it to the “title” value of my Article? (as an example).

I tried if(!item.title.isEmpty()) but that still gives the error.

(or is there a better way that I’m overlooking?)

Answer 1

Well, if the element doesn’t exist, it can’t be checked for isEmpty() because it is null.

if(item.title != null && !item.title.isEmpty()) {
    // Yay, we have something useful!
    a1.title = item.title.trim();
} else {
    // Perhaps we should give a default value?
    a1.title = "";
}