Unresolved Exceptions in my program

[borfoo3]

Hello Everyone.
Here's the deal. We were given a completed driver program (called Assignment4.java) from our prof. and we were asked to complete the required Pet.java and BirthInfo.java files.
So far, I've finished the two files but I'm having difficulties running the program as a whole and I'm getting these exceptions:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
at Pet.setBirthInfo(Pet.java:43)
at Assignment4.main(Assignment4.java:63)


This is the Assignment4.java:

import java.io.*;    //to use InputStreamReader and BufferedReader
import java.util.*;

public class Assignment4
 {
  public static void main (String[] args)
   {
       // local variables, can be accessed anywhere from the main method
       char input1 = 'Z';
       String inputInfo;
       String name, type, place;
       int date, month, year;
       String line = new String();

       // instantiate a Pet object
       Pet pet1 = new Pet();

       printMenu();

       //Create a Scanner object to read user input
       Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);


       do  // will ask for user input
        {
         System.out.println("What action would you like to perform?");
         line = scan.nextLine();

         if (line.length() == 1)
          {
           input1 = line.charAt(0);
           input1 = Character.toUpperCase(input1);

           // matches one of the case statement
           switch (input1)
            {
             case 'A':   //Add Pet
               System.out.print("Please enter the pet information:\n");
               System.out.print("Enter a pet name:\n");
               name = scan.nextLine();
               pet1.setPetName(name);

               System.out.print("Enter its type:\n");
               type = scan.nextLine();
               pet1.setType(type);

               System.out.print("Enter its birth date:\n");
               date = Integer.parseInt(scan.nextLine());
               System.out.print("Enter its birth month:\n");
               month = Integer.parseInt(scan.nextLine());
               System.out.print("Enter its birth year:\n");
               year = Integer.parseInt(scan.nextLine());
               System.out.print("Enter its birth place:\n");
               place = scan.nextLine();
[B]               pet1.setBirthInfo(date, month, year, place);          //exception in Assignment4 (line63)
[/B]
               break;
             case 'D':   //Display Pet
               System.out.print(pet1);
               break;
             case 'Q':   //Quit
               break;
             case '?':   //Display Menu
               printMenu();
               break;
             default:
               System.out.print("Unknown action\n");
               break;
            }
          }
         else
          {
           System.out.print("Unknown action\n");
          }
        } while (input1 != 'Q' || line.length() != 1);
   }

  /** The method printMenu displays the menu to a user **/
  public static void printMenu()
   {
     System.out.print("Choice\t\tAction\n" +
                        "------\t\t------\n" +
                        "A\t\tAdd Pet\n" +
                        "D\t\tDisplay Pet\n" +
                        "Q\t\tQuit\n" +
                        "?\t\tDisplay Help\n\n");
  }
}

---------------------------
This is Pet.java:
---------------------------

public class Pet 
{

	private String petName;
	private String type;
	private BirthInfo birth;
	
	
	public Pet() //constructor initializing both Strings to "?"
	{
		petName="?";
		type="?";
	}
	
	public String getPetName()
	{
		return petName;
	}
	
	public String getType()
	{
		return type;
	}
	
	public BirthInfo getBirthInfo()
	{
		return birth;
	}
	
	public void setPetName(String pName)
	{
		petName = pName;
	}
	
	public void setType(String pType)
	{
		type = pType;
	}
	
	public void setBirthInfo(int date, int month, int year, String place)
	{
		[B]birth.setDate(date);               //Exception here: pet.java line 43   [/B]
		birth.setMonth(month);
		birth.setYear(year);
		birth.setPlace(place);
	}
	
	public String toString()
	{
		
		return ("\nPet Name:\t\t" + petName + "\nType:\t\t\t" +
				type + "\nBirth Information:\t"+ birth +"\n\n");
	}
	
}

---------------------------
This is BirthInfo.java:
---------------------------

public class BirthInfo
{

	private int date;
	private int month;
	private int year;
	private String place;
	
	public BirthInfo()
	{
		date=0;
		month=0;
		year=0;
		place = "?";
	}
	
	public int getDate()
	{
		return date;
	}
	
	public int getMonth()
	{
		return month;
	}
	
	public int getYear()
	{
		return year;
	}
	
	public String getPlace()
	{
		return place;
	}
	
	public void setDate(int date1)
	{
		date = date1;
	}
	
	public void setMonth(int month1)
	{
		month = month1;
	}
	
	public void setYear(int year1)
	{
		year = year1;
	}
	
	public void setPlace(String place1)
	{
		place = place1;
	}
	
	public String toString()
	{
		return ("Date " + date + "/Month "+month+"/Year "+ year +"/Place " +place);
	}
}

I suspect that I did something wrong in the setBirthInfo method in Pet.java. However, I'm really a beginner at java so I might have messed up somewhere else..

Thanks!

[mine0926]

Where is line 43 of Pet.java and line 63 of Assignment4.java?
What is you input for this parameters?

[borfoo3]

I tried these inputs as my test case when running Assignment4.java:
A
Chloe
ChihuahuaDog
4
7
2006
BeverlyHills
D
Q

[mine0926]

You just declare BirthInfo but did not initialize it

[mine0926]

See this:
Lesson: Classes and Objects (The Java™ Tutorials > Learning the Java Language)

Please read the link especially the topic about "Creating Object"

[borfoo3]

ohhh.. i see, you're right. It's working now. Thanks for the help!

[lwojtulewicz]

We have the same assignemt, Did you get this to run after initializing BirthInfo?

I get the same NullPointException, expect earlier on in Assignment4 when it is instantiating a new pet (line 16). Any ideas on what is wrong with my Pet class? It is identical to this one, with Birth Info initialized.