Super class and sub class help

[ExX]

Hey Java Forum,

I first apologize for this long long post, but i really need help.
I need some help with my homework coding, I'm stuck on this one part but before that here is what the problem is:

Develop a set of classes for a college to use in various student service and personnel
applications. Classes you need to design include the following:
u Person—A Person contains a first name, last name, street address, zip code, and
phone number. The class also includes a method that sets each data field, using a
series of dialog boxes and a display method that displays all of a Person’s
information on a single line at the command line on the screen.
u CollegeEmployee—CollegeEmployee descends from Person. A CollegeEmployee
also includes a Social Security number, an annual salary, and a department name,
as well as methods that override the Person methods to accept and display all
CollegeEmployee data.
u Faculty—Faculty descends from CollegeEmployee. This class also includes a
Boolean field that indicates whether the Faculty member is tenured, as well as
methods that override the CollegeEmployee methods to accept and display this
additional piece of information.
u Student—Student descends from Person. In addition to the fields available in
Person, a Student contains a major field of study and a grade point average as
well as methods that override the Person methods to accept and display these
additional facts.
Write an application named CollegeList that declares an array of four “regular”
CollegeEmployees, three Faculty, and seven Students. Prompt the user to specify
which type of person’s data will be entered (‘C’, ‘F’, or ‘S’), or allow the user to quit
(‘Q’). While the user chooses to continue (that is, does not quit), accept data entry
for the appropriate type of Person. If the user attempts to enter data for more than
four CollegeEmployees, three Faculty, or seven Students, display an error message.
When the user quits, display a report on the screen listing each group of Persons
under the appropriate heading “College Employees,” “Faculty,” or “Students.” If the
user has not entered data for one or more types of Persons during a session, display
an appropriate message under the appropriate heading.
Save the files as Person.java, CollegeEmployee.java, Faculty.java, Student.java,
and CollegeList.java.

Check list:
I already done Person.java, CollegeEmployee.java, Faculty.java, Student.java.

Problem:
Stuck on CollegeList.java

Below is my code for Person.java the parent(base) class

import javax.swing.JOptionPane; 
public class Person
{
	protected String firstName;
	protected String lastName;
	protected String address;
	protected String zipCode;
	protected String phoneNumber;
	/*	
	public Person(String firstName, String lastName, String address, String zipCode, String phoneNumber)
	{
		this.firstName = firstName;
		this.lastName = lastName;
		this.address = address;
		this.zipCode = zipCode;
		this.phoneNumber = phoneNumber;
	}
	
	*/
	public void setFirstName(String firstName)
	{
		this.firstName = firstName;
	}
	
	public void setLastName(String lastName)
	{
		this.lastName = lastName;
	}
	
	public void setAddress(String address)
	{
		this.address = address;
	}
	
	public void setZipCode(String zipCode)
	{
		this.zipCode = zipCode;
	}
	
	public void setPhoneNumber(String phoneNumber)
	{
		this.phoneNumber = phoneNumber;
	}
	
	public String getFirstName()
	{
		return firstName;
	}

	public String getLastName()
	{
		return lastName;
	}
	
	public String getAddress()
	{
		return address;
	}
	
	public String getZipCode()
	{
		return zipCode;
	}
	
	public String getPhoneNumber()
	{
		return phoneNumber;
	}

	public void display()
	{
		JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, firstName + lastName + " lives in " + address + ", " + zipCode + "Tel: " + phoneNumber, "Information", JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE);
	}
}

CollegeEmployee.java a child class extended from Person

import javax.swing.JOptionPane; 
public class CollegeEmployee extends Person
{
	protected String ssn;
	protected double annSalary;
	protected String department;
	
	public CollegeEmployee()
	{
		super();
	}
	
	public void setSSN(String ssn)
	{
		this.ssn = ssn;
	}
	
	public void setAnnSalary(double annSalary)
	{
		this.annSalary = annSalary;
	}
	
	public void setDepartment(String department)
	{
		this.department = department;
	}	
	
	public String getSSN()
	{
		return ssn;
	}
	
	public double getAnnSalary()
	{
		return annSalary;
	}
	
	public String getDepartment()
	{
		return department;
	}
	
	public void display()
	{
		super.display(); 
		JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "\nSSN: " + getSSN() + "\nAnnual Salary: " + getAnnSalary() + "\nDepartment: " + getDepartment(), "Information", JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE);
	}
}

Faculty.java a child class extended from CollegeEmployee.

import javax.swing.JOptionPane; 
public class Faculty extends CollegeEmployee
{
	protected boolean tenured;
	public Faculty()
	{
		super();
		
		if(tenured)
			tenured = true;
		else
			tenured = false;
	}
	
	public void display()
	{
		super.display();
		JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Tenured: " + tenured, "Information", JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE);

	}	
}

Student.java extended from Person.java

import javax.swing.JOptionPane; 
public class Student extends Person
{
	protected String major;
	protected double gradePointAverage;
	
	public Student()
	{
		super();
	}
	
	public void setMajor(String major)
	{
		this.major = major;
	}
	
	public void setGPA(double gradePointAverage)
	{
		this.gradePointAverage = gradePointAverage;
	}
	
	public String getMajor()
	{
		return major;
	}
	
	public double getGPA()
	{
		return gradePointAverage;
	}

	public void display()
	{
		super.display(); 
		JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "\nMajor: " + getMajor() + "\nGPA: " + getGPA(), "Information", JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE);
	}
}

And here is my main class CollegeList.java, I am stuck at this one part where I am trying to store what the user enters into my arrays:

import java.util.Scanner;
public class CollegeList
{
	public static void main(String[] args)
	{
		CollegeEmployee[] group1 = new CollegeEmployee[4];
		Faculty[] group2 = new Faculty[3];
		Student[] group3 = new Student[7];
		Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
		String response;
		String fname;
		String lname;
		String address;
		String zip;
		String phone;
		String cont ="Y";
		String QUIT = "Q";
		
		System.out.println("(C)ollege employee, (F)aculty or (S)tudent, (" + QUIT + ") to quit:");
		response = scan.nextLine();
		switch (response)
		{
			case "C":
			while(cont.equals("Y"))
			{
				int i = 0;
				System.out.println("Enter first name: ");
				fname = scan.nextLine();
				group1[i].setFirstName(fname);
					
				System.out.println("Enter last name: ");
				lname = scan.nextLine();
				group1[i].setLastName(lname);				
				
				System.out.println("Enter address: ");
				address = scan.nextLine();	
				group1[i].setAddress(address);				
						
				System.out.println("Enter zip code: ");
				zip = scan.nextLine();
				group1[i].setZipCode(zip);
				
				System.out.println("Enter phone number: ");
				phone = scan.nextLine();
				group1[i].setPhoneNumber(phone);
				
				System.out.println("Enter more? (Y/N)");
				cont = scan.nextLine();

				i++;
		
			}
		}
	}
}

When I compile and run, it compiled right but when I enter name it gives me this error:

 ----jGRASP exec: java CollegeList

(C)ollege employee, (F)aculty or (S)tudent, (Q) to quit:
C
Enter first name: 
John
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
	at CollegeList.main(CollegeList.java:33)

 ----jGRASP wedge2: exit code for process is 1.
 ----jGRASP: operation complete.

[pbrockway2]

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
at CollegeList.main(CollegeList.java:33)

I'm going to assume line 33 of CollegeList.java is "group1[i].setFirstName(fname);". (The 33 in the stacktrace refers to the line number in the source code. It's a good idea to say which line that is in your post because it won't always match up with the line numbers provided by the site's CSS.)

You get a NullPointerException when you use a variable or other expression as if it had a non null value when it is really null. Typical such usages are using the "dot" operator to dereference the variable to call a method, or access a variable and using the [] operator to access an array element. Clearly you can't call a method of something that is null, or access some position in an array which is null.

String[] foo;
System.out.println(foo.length); // bad! foo is null
System.out.println(foo[0]); // bad! foo is null
foo[0] = "BAH!"; // bad! foo is null

foo = new String[42];
System.out.println(foo[0].toLowerCase()); // bad! foo[0] is null

foo[0] = "BAH!";
System.out.println(foo[0].toLowerCase()); // finally good: foo!=null and foo[0]!=null

So what is null in line 33? Possible candidates (things you use "dot" or [] with) are: group1 and group1[i]. (*) You can tell which by using System.out.println() to do a little debugging. In such cases it is probably a good idea to print i as well. The more information, the better!

System.out.println("About to set the first name");
System.out.println("i=" + i);
System.out.println("group1=" + group1);
System.out.println("group1[i]=" + group1[i]);
group1[i].setFirstName(fname);

Once you have determined which is null when it shouldn't be, go back through your code and find where you thought you had given it a non null value. Either you fogot to give it a value, or the code you thought gave it a value didn't and you have to figure out why.

(*) Edit: It may not be obvious, but we don't care whether fname is null or not. It may be null, and that might cause a problem. But, if so, the stack trace will report the problem as occurring in the setFirstName() method. By giving us the focus of the problem the stack trace is limiting what we have to check.

[ExX]

The line number matches.

So I looked into see where the null occurs, added that 4 line you wrote, compiled and run:

 ----jGRASP exec: java CollegeList

(C)ollege employee, (F)aculty or (S)tudent, (Q) to quit:
C
Enter first name: 
John
About to set the first name
i=0
group1=[LCollegeEmployee;@2f3cf887
group1[i]=null
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
	at CollegeList.main(CollegeList.java:37)

 ----jGRASP wedge2: exit code for process is 1.
 ----jGRASP: operation complete.

So the null happens when group1[i], when i print out fname it has the data "John", so it should be able to add John to group[i] but why won't it? I thought my code is correct, since in my other example I did in class also uses the same code, it hurts my head cause I get confuse...

[pbrockway2]

So the null happens when group1[i], when i print out fname it has the data "John", so it should be able to add John to group[i] but why won't it?

The output is telling you not so much that the null "happens", but that group[i] has the value null. And that's why you cannot call the setFirstName() method. You cannot call the method because group1[i] does not refer to anything with a method to call.

You must give group1[i] a value before you can call any methods like group1[i].setFirstName().

This will involve using the "new" operator.