regex problem

[fishy8158]

Im making a program that finds the links in a site,and prints it. Compiler doesn't tell me i have any errors. I run the program and nothing happens, can anyone tell me what i am doing wrong? this is part of it.

public String href(StringBuffer asb) {
		link=Pattern.compile("href=\"[^>]*\">");
		sb=asb;
		Matcher linkmatches=link.matcher(sb.toString());
		while(linkmatches.find()){
			String s=linkmatches.group().replace("href=\\" , " ").replace("\">", "");
			if(s.matches("http://.*")){
			links.add(s);
			}
			else {
				badlinks.add(s);
				}
			}
	for(int i=0;i<links.size();i++)
		System.out.println(links.get(i));
	return "end of links";
}
private Pattern link;
private String str;
private StringBuffer sb;

}

[Fubarable]

Myself, I'd use Jsoup for easy and clean HTML parsing.

[Junky]

I run the program and nothing happens

Crystal ball says you are swallowing an exception.

[fishy8158]

@fub, its for an hw assignment, professor wants us to use pure code. but thanks for advice
@junky i added throws PatternSyntaxException . seems like its still not the case. but thanks.
if theres no problem with this, then should be the "reading url" class.

[fishy8158]

this is the sub program, now compiler complains about line 44, but i don't understand whats wrong.

44: try to match "href=\"[^>]*\">" in the StringBuffer which has the website's content.

Thanks for any help in advace

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.Reader;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.regex.*;
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class LinkFinder {
	ArrayList<String> links=new ArrayList();
	ArrayList<String> badlinks=new ArrayList();
	
public LinkFinder(){
}
public void findLink(URL u) throws MalformedURLException,IOException{
	try{
	HttpURLConnection uc = (HttpURLConnection) u.openConnection();
	InputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(uc.getInputStream());
    Reader r = new InputStreamReader(in);
	BufferedReader br=new BufferedReader(r);
	StringBuffer sb=new StringBuffer();
	br.toString();
	while((str=br.readLine())!=null){ 
		sb.append(str);
		System.out.println(str);
	}
	this.href();
in.close();
r.close();
br.close();
	}catch(MalformedURLException e){
		e.printStackTrace();
		}
	catch(IOException e){
		e.printStackTrace();
		}
		}
	public String href() throws PatternSyntaxException  {
		try{
			link=Pattern.compile("href=\"[^>]*\">");
			Matcher linkmatches=link.matcher(sb.toString());
		while(linkmatches.find()){
			String s=linkmatches.group().replace("href=\\" , " ").replace("\">", "");
			if(s.matches("http://.*")){
			links.add(s);
			}
			else {
				badlinks.add(s);
				}
			}
	for(int i=0;i<links.size();i++)
		System.out.println(links.get(i));
	}
		catch(PatternSyntaxException  e){
			e.printStackTrace();
			System.out.println("pattern errorrrrrr");
										}
			return "end of links";
			}
private Pattern link;
private String str;
private StringBuffer sb;

}

[Fubarable]

What is the actual error message? Always show these if you are asking a question regarding a compiler error.

[fishy8158]

compiler errorr:

java.lang.NullPointerException
at LinkFinder.findLink(LinkFinder.java:44)
at LinkFinderTester.main(LinkFinderTester.java:17)


main class:

import java.net.URL;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.io.*;
public class LinkFinderTester {

	public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException,MalformedURLException{
	try{
String address="http://java.sun.com/index.html";
URL u =new URL(address);
LinkFinder lf=new LinkFinder();
lf.findLink(u);}
catch(MalformedURLException e){
	e.printStackTrace();
	}
}
}

[Junky]

private StringBuffer sb;

[fishy8158]

it shouldn't be there? line 65
its used in both methods.

[Fubarable]

Your code is very difficult to read and impossible to debug with your crappy code indentation. You've likely got a scope issue where your StringBuffer variable has been declared and constructed in one method but the class's StringBuffer field is still null, but to be honest, I have no idea where one method ends and one begins because your formatting is gawd-awful. You must correct it at once. If you want volunteers to put in the effort to understand your code, you should at least put in the effort so that it's not difficult for them to do.

[Junky]

Yeah I was trying to highlight the fact that your class level sb variable is null. In the findLink method you create a local sb variable. In the href method you use the sb variable but it only has access to the class level one which is still null => NullPointerException.

[fishy8158]

Sorry about that. ill try to learn that now, my professor never really talked about it.

I fixed subprogram so it only has 1 method, so i dont need the instance fields anymore.
the program can run but all the links it print are "badlinks".
And thanks for pointing that out. I didn't notice i created a local sb.

[Fubarable]

Look at the code examples from the "pros" in this and other forums to see how to properly indent your code. Also your book and the tutorials will show you how.

[Junky]

I fixed subprogram so it only has 1 method, so i dont need the instance fields anymore.

Where in any of the replies so far has anyone suggested that you cram all your code into one method?

[fishy8158]

Where in any of the replies so far has anyone suggested that you cram all your code into one method?

yea i realize it wasn't a good idea. however i got everything to work with one method. ima seperate it again.