Question

Im not sure why im getting NullPointerException. The method getQuestion() currently points to a hard coded String for troubleshooting purposes. Im trying to generate a different string before setContentView() runs to avoid having to refresh the UI.

First I call the method getQuestion()

    TextView t=new TextView(this);
    t=(TextView)findViewById(R.id.textView4);
    try {
        //above executes well :) ... problem is below
        t.setText(quiz.getQuestion());
    } catch (Exception e1) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        Toast.makeText(AlarmReceiverActivity.this, "getQuestion() failed", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                    e1.printStackTrace();
    }

    setContentView(R.layout.main);

This is some of my Question.class:

    Question(){
    question="null";
    answer="null";
    try {
        newQuestion();
    } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}//Question constructor

String getQuestion(){
    return "This is a question?";
}//get question

Answer 1

you cannot call t=(TextView)findViewById(R.id.textView4); before calling setContentView(R.layout.main);. First you need to set your layout, then findViewById can find the view from your defined layout