Why am I getting a NullPointerException

I am my program working properly but I am trying to use an input() method in a different class to perform the readLine() operation from the data file. I am passing a BufferedReader object to the input() method. I now can not get rid of the NullPointerException. I commented out the original while loop that was the while loop of the original working program. What is causing my NullPointerException problem?

Thanks.


private static BufferedReader checkSorted(BufferedReader filePath) throws IOException, FileUnsorted {

String numbers = null;

Polynomial polyObjA = null;
Polynomial polyObjB = null;
Polynomial p = null;


numbers = p.input(filePath);



//while ((numbers = filePath.readLine()) != null) {
while(numbers != null) {

polyObjB = new Polynomial(numbers);
sortedList.add(polyObjB);

if (polyObjA != null) {

if (polyObjA.compareTo(polyObjB) > 0) {

throw new FileUnsorted("Error: File is not sorted");
}
}
polyObjA = polyObjB;

}
return new BufferedReader(filePath);
}

public String input(BufferedReader filePath) throws IOException{

String number = "";

System.out.println("I'm in input");

number = filePath.readLine();

return number;
}

Code:

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Polynomial p = null;
numbers = p.input(filePath);

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"Why a, I getting a NullPointerException?"

You tell us.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Junky

Code:

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Polynomial p = null;
numbers = p.input(filePath);

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"Why a, I getting a NullPointerException?"

You tell us.

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LOL...that was dumb. However the compiler complains if I don't initialize p too. When I run the program with out p initialized it gives me "Exception in thread "main" java.lang.RuntimeException: Uncompilable source code - variable p might not have been initialized." How else can I initialize p without being null?

Gee I don't know. How about with a Polynomial Object?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dragstang86

LOL...that was dumb. However the compiler complains if I don't initialize p too. When I run the program with out p initialized it gives me "Exception in thread "main" java.lang.RuntimeException: Uncompilable source code - variable p might not have been initialized." How else can I initialize p without being null?

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So initialize it to something that makes sense. Hard to say more given the snippet of unformatted code that's been provided.

how do I add the code tags for posting code. I didn't want to post all the code since I couldn't figure out how to format it. I tried using the # tag but that didn't work.

Place [ code ] before and [ /code ] after your code (without the spaces).

Thanks. I was able to add another constructor to initialize it with. I don't know why I seem to only struggle with the simple things but fly right through the tougher parts of the program. I just tend to get stuck and needed somebody to show me I was over thinking it. Thanks for the help.