Java networking, client receives null on readLine()

[space.puffin]

Sometimes the program works fine, other times it crashes on readLine() in ChatClient, receiving null


Thanks all.

package battleships;

/* ChatClient.java */
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;

import java.net.Socket;
import java.net.UnknownHostException;

public class ChatClient {
    private static int port = 1001; /* port to connect to */
    private static String host = "localhost"; /* host to connect to */
   String[] sArray = new String[3];

    
    public ChatClient (String[] toSend) throws IOException {

        Socket server = null;
        sArray = toSend;
        try {
            /* try to open a socket to the server at the given host:port */
            server = new Socket(host, port);
        } catch (UnknownHostException e) {
            System.err.println(e);
            System.exit(1);
        }
        
        /* obtain an output stream to the server... */
        PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(server.getOutputStream(), true);
        /* ... and an input stream */
        BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
                    server.getInputStream()));
               
        /* loop reading messages from stdin, send them to the server 
         * and read the server's response */
        if ( (toSend == null))
        {
            out.println("load");
            
        
        sArray[0] = in.readLine();
        sArray[1] = in.readLine();
        sArray[2] = in.readLine();
        System.out.println(sArray[0] + " first string");
        }
        else {
            out.println("save");
            out.println(sArray[0]);
            out.println(sArray[1]);
            out.println(sArray[2]);
            out.flush();
            System.out.println("written array to server");
        }
    }
        public String[] getS () {
            return sArray;
        }
    }

package battleserver;
/* ChatServer.java */
import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.net.Socket;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.PrintWriter;


class BattleServer {
    private static int port = 1001; /* port to listen on */
    private static String[] sArray = new String[3];
    
    public static void main (String[] args) throws IOException {

        class ClientConn implements Runnable {
            private Socket client;

            ClientConn(Socket client) {
                
                
                this.client = client;
                
            }

            public void run() {
                sArray = init();
                BufferedReader in = null;
                PrintWriter out = null;
                try {
                    /* obtain an input stream to this client ... */
                    in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
                                client.getInputStream()));
                    /* ... and an output stream to the same client */
                    out = new PrintWriter(client.getOutputStream(), true);
                } catch (IOException e) {
                    System.err.println(e);
                    return;
                }
                try {
                
                String msg = in.readLine();
                System.out.println("msg = " + msg);
                
                    /* loop reading messages from the client, 
                     * output to stdin and send back an "OK" back */
                if (msg.equals("load")) {        
                System.out.println("sArray out " + sArray[0]);
                        out.println(sArray[0]);
                        out.flush();
                        System.out.println("sArray out " + sArray[1]);
                        out.println(sArray[1]);
                        out.flush();
               System.out.println("sArray out " + sArray[2]);
                        out.println(sArray[2]);
                        out.flush();
                }
                else {
                    sArray[0] = in.readLine();
                    sArray[1] = in.readLine();
                    sArray[2] = in.readLine();
                    System.out.println("saved " + sArray[0]);
                }
                } catch (IOException ex) {
                    ex.printStackTrace();
                }
                
            }
        }

        ServerSocket server = null;
        try {
            server = new ServerSocket(port); /* start listening on the port */
        } catch (IOException e) {
            System.err.println("Could not listen on port: " + port);
            System.err.println(e);
            System.exit(1);
        }

        Socket client = null;
        while(true) {
            try {
                client = server.accept();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                System.err.println("Accept failed.");
                System.err.println(e);
                System.exit(1);
            }
            /* start a new thread to handle this client */
            Thread t = new Thread(new ClientConn(client));
            t.start();
        }
    }


    static public String[] init() {
        int x[] = new int[4];
        int y[] = new int[4];
        String sArray[] = new String[3];
        String s = "";
        int z = 0;

        for (int k = 0; k < 3; k++) {
            int startx = (int) (Math.random() * 7);
            int starty = (int) (Math.random() * 7);
            int length = (int) (Math.random() * 7);
            int direction = (int) (Math.random() * 2);

            switch (direction) {
                case 0:
                    for (int j = 0; j <= 3; j++) {
                        y[j] = starty;
                        x[j] = startx + j;
                    }
                    break;
                case 1:
                    for (int j = 0; j <= 3; j++) {
                        x[j] = startx;
                        y[j] = starty + j;
                    }
                    break;
                default:
                    System.out.println("error");
            }
            for (int i = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
                s = s + Integer.toString(x[i]);
            }
            s = s + " ";
            for (int i = 0; i < y.length; i++) {
                s = s + Integer.toString(y[i]);
            }
            sArray[z] = s;
            z++;

            x = new int[4];
            y = new int[4];
            s = "";
        }

        return sArray;

    }
}

[space.puffin]

in.ready returns false, so in cannot be read, any ideas folks?
have seperated InputStreamReader from BufferedReader.

InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(server.getInputStream());
        System.out.println("isr = " + isr.ready());
        BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(isr);
        System.out.println("in = " + in.ready());

isr = false
in = false.

Thanks in advance.

[Norm]

readLine() in ChatClient, receiving null

Have you read the API doc for the readLine() method?
Can it return null? Is that expected or not?
You should check after every read to see if you have read a null.