NullPointerException error

[Thecoffeefiend]

Hi, I'm entirely new to Java, but I have experience with C in the past.

When trying to run the following code (in which I'm investigating classes for the first time), I get the error:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
        at test.Test.main(Test.java:33)
Java Result: 1

This is the line in main that says (and I've highlighted it with "=>")

playerTeam.manager.name = read.nextLine();

My (rather simple) code:

package test;

import java.util.Random;
import java.util.Scanner;
import static java.lang.System.out;

class RaceTeam {
    String name;
    int balance;
    Person manager;
}

class Person {
    String name;
    int age;
}

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        RaceTeam playerTeam = new RaceTeam();
        Scanner read = new Scanner(System.in);

        int randomNo = new Random().nextInt(50001);
        playerTeam.balance = 50000 + randomNo;

        out.println("Hi there, Mr Manager, what is your name?");
=>      playerTeam.manager.name = read.nextLine();
        out.println("Nice to meet you, " + playerTeam.manager.name + "!");
        out.println("How old are you?");
        playerTeam.manager.age = read.nextInt();
        out.println("And what would you like to call your new race team?");
        playerTeam.name = read.nextLine();
        out.println("OK, " + playerTeam.name + " it is.");
        out.println(playerTeam.name + " has £" + playerTeam.balance +
                "to begin with.");
    }
}

Thanks in advance for any help!

[KevinWorkman]

RaceTeam.manager is null be default.

So when you call playerTeam.manager, you get back a null.

So when you call playerTeam.manager.name, you're actually calling (null).name.

You can't call (null).anything.

So you have to initialize the manager before you dereference it like that.

[Thecoffeefiend]

RaceTeam.manager is null be default.

So when you call playerTeam.manager, you get back a null.

So when you call playerTeam.manager.name, you're actually calling (null).name.

You can't call (null).anything.

So you have to initialize the manager before you dereference it like that.

Oh yeah, I see. Thanks. I'd actually thought about doing that and completely forgotten.

[Thecoffeefiend]

So how do I initialise a class within a class?

[KevinWorkman]

So how do I initialise a class within a class?

Same way you create an instance of a class anywhere else. You could add a Constructor to RaceTeam that initializes manager, or you could just do it in the same line you declare it.

[Thecoffeefiend]

OK, thanks.

Also, do I have to initialise a new Scanner for the second String scan at the end or is there a better way to do this?

[KevinWorkman]

OK, thanks.

Also, do I have to initialise a new Scanner for the second String scan at the end or is there a better way to do this?

I'm not really sure what you mean. What second String scan? Why would you have to initialize a new Scanner?

[Thecoffeefiend]

I tried running the program after initialising a Person class in the RaceTeam class and the Scanner worked fine for the first nextLine() and the nextInt() but on the last nextLine where the program asks for the team name it didn't work. This is the output:

Hi there, Mr Manager, what is your name?
Thecoffeefiend
Nice to meet you, Thecoffeefiend!
How old are you?
100
And what would you like to call your new race team?
OK,  it is.
 has £64122 to begin with.

But if I initialise a new Scanner called read2 and replace the last Scanner, it works fine.

[KevinWorkman]

Oh, I understand now.

The problem is that nextInt() does not read the end of line after the next int. So if you enter 100 and hit enter, what the Scanner sees is something more like this:

100\n

The nextInt() method reads until the end of the next int and then stops reading, so the Scanner at that point is looking at:

\n

So when you call nextLine(), which reads until the end of the next end of line, it reads that \n and stops, even if there is other stuff after it (your team name).

You could either call nextLine() after calling nextInt() and just throw that value away, or you could use nextLine() and convert to an int instead of using nextInt().