Question

I’m trying to read a csv file into either an ArrayList or a String [][] array. In this I’m trying to read it into a list and then form the list, using a tokenizer, into an array. The csv file have 7 columns (A – G) and 961 rows (1-961). My for loop for the 2D array keeps returning a null pointer, but I think it should be working..

public class FoodFacts
{
    private static BufferedReader textIn;
    private static BufferedReader foodFacts;
            static int numberOfLines = 0; 
            static String [][] foodArray;
    public static String  aFact;
    static  int NUM_COL = 7;
    static int NUM_ROW = 961;
    // Make a random number to pull a line
    static Random r = new Random();

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        try 
        {
            textIn = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
            foodFacts= new BufferedReader(new FileReader("foodfacts.csv"));
            Scanner factFile = new Scanner(foodFacts);
            List<String> facts = new ArrayList<String>();

            String fact;
            System.out.println("Please type in the food you wish to know about.");
            String request = textIn.readLine();
            while ( factFile.hasNextLine()){
                fact = factFile.nextLine();
                StringTokenizer st2 = new StringTokenizer(fact, ",");
                //facts.add(fact);
                numberOfLines++;
                while (st2.hasMoreElements()){
                    for ( int j = 0; j < NUM_COL ; j++) {
                        for (int i = 0; i < NUM_ROW ; i++){
                            foodArray [j][i]= st2.nextToken();  //NULL POINTER HERE
                            System.out.println(foodArray[j][i]);
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
            System.out.println ("Error, problem reading text file!");
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
     }
 }

Answer 1

Initialize your foodArray as foodArray = new String[NUM_ROW][NUM_COL]; before using it.

Also, there is no need for inner for loop as you are reading one row at a time.

use numberOfLines as row:

        while ( factFile.hasNextLine() && numberOfLines < NUM_ROW){
                 fact = input.nextLine();
                 StringTokenizer st2 = new StringTokenizer(fact, ",")    ;
                 //facts.add(fact);
                while (st2.hasMoreElements()){
                  for ( int j = 0; j < NUM_COL ; j++) {
                    foodArray [numberOfLines][j]= st2.nextToken(); 
                    System.out.println(foodArray[numberOfLines][i]);
                 }
                }  
                 numberOfLines++;
            }

Alternatively, I think you can use split to get all columns as once e.g.

        while ( factFile.hasNextLine() && numberOfLines < NUM_ROW){
           fact = input.nextLine();
           foodArray [numberOfLines++] = fact.split(",");
        }

One question: Is there any specific purpose for declaring all variables as static class variables? Most of them fit as local variable inside the method e.g. numberOfLines?