Question

I’m trying to use LogCat to debug a simple app that reads an XML file in my res folder.

I keep getting this error in my Eclipse LogCat window:

01-03 10:21:30.741: W/dalvikvm(356): threadid=1: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x40014760)
E/AndroidRuntime(356): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to instantiate activity ComponentInfo{tot.HelloAndroid/tot.HelloAndroid.HelloAndroid}: java.lang.NullPointerException: println needs a message

This doesn’t seem to helpful to me. I am using a try/catch block like this. Does this look ok?

public XmlParser() throws XmlPullParserException, IOException {

  try {
    XmlPullParser xpp = getResources().getXml(R.xml.encounters);
    // ...do stuff...
  } catch (Exception e) {
    Log.e("error", e.getMessage());
  }

  //...

Answer 1

If the error message is null (which can be the case if the error message has not been set), you try to print nothing, a simple fix is to use

Log.e("error",""+e.getMessage()); //or "error message: "+e.getMessage();, or whatever you want.

or

Log.e("error", String.valueOf(e.getMessage()));

You might also want to call e.printStackTrace() to get more detailed information.