troubles with CardLayout

Alright so in the game that im making there is a JPanel that uses a CardLayout to hold a group of JPanels that are the game area what I am trying to implement is that when the user goes to move off the side of the screen either to the side or above or below it moves the gameArea to the next area of the game which is contained in another JPanel in another card of the CardLayout. Now the cards switch just fine but when i try and move the player around in the new game area it throws an null pointer error which means it is looking for info in the jPanel that just went away when it should be looking for it in the one on the screen. Below is the code for the actionPerformed which fires when you move the character off the screen:

Code:

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public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) //called when key is pressed
{
                                                        if(keyStroke.getKeyCode() == 38 && gameArea.getUserLocation().getRow() == 0)//true when the up arrow key is pressed and they are at the top of the gameArea
                                                        {
                                                                for(int i =0; i <gameAreas.length;i++)//loops through the double array of Grid's that form the game area
                                                                {
                                                                        for(int j =0; j< gameAreas.length;j++)//trying to find the one you are in
                                                                        {
                                                                                if(gameArea.equals(gameAreas[i][j])) //we found it
                                                                                {
                                                                                        if(i-1 >=0)//checks to see if there is a Grid above the one you are in
                                                                                        {
                                                                                                int y = 24; //used to place the player on the new Grid to be displayed
                                                                                                int x = gameArea.getUserLocation().getCol(); //same as above
                                                                                                gameAreas[i-1][j].setUserLocation(new Location(y,x));//puts him on the new Grid
                                                                                                gameAreas[i-1][j].setPerson(new Location(y,x), gameArea.getPerson(gameArea.getUserLocation())); //sets his location on the Grid
                                                                                                gameAreas[i-1][j].setColor(new Location(y,x), new Color(0,0,0));//displays him on the Grid
                                                                                                gameAreas[i-1][j].repaint();//refresh the Grid
                                                                                                gameArea.setPlayer(gameArea.getUserLocation(), null); //remove him from the Grid we are on
                                                                                                gameArea.setColor(gameArea.getUserLocation(), new Color(255,255,255));//remove him visually from the Grid we are on
                                                                                                gameArea.setUserLocation(null);// remove his location from the Grid we are on
                                                                                                gameArea.repaint();//refresh the Grid we are on
                                                                                                cardLay.show(gameAreaView, "area"+(i-1)+j); //update the cardLayout to display the new Grid we moved too
                                                                                                gameAreas[i-1][j].requestFocus();//set the focus to the new Grid
                                                                                               
                                                                                        }
                                                                                }
                                                                        }
                                                                }
                                                        }

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Where does the NullPointerException occur?

In general I would want a Game class quite separate from the gui panels. Moving a character would involve an instance of this class being made aware of players new position. The various card panels would hold a reference to the Game instance (so the player could be shown at the right place)

With this separation of game (aka "model") and the panels (aka "views") the logic of up key at the top would be simplified: tell the game the player has moved, switch to the new panel withtn the layout. The point isthe panels wouldn't keep or have to update information about the player position - the game would do that and the panels (eg when they painted themselves) would ask the game.

Whenever you ask a question about NPE's, you will want to show which line throw the exception.

ahh my bad its here

Code:

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if(keyStroke.getKeyCode() == 38 && gameArea.getUserLocation().getRow() == 0)

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when I try and move the character in the new JPanel it tries to grab the userLocation from gameArea (the old JPanel) but it has already set to null.

In response to pbrockway2: i should elaborate the JPanels that contain the games area are from a class called Grid which extends JPanel. Grid contains all the information you described i.e. the players position and such.