Problems calling a method.

[RadicalNH]

New to the forum, forgive me If im not posting my code correctly or giving enough detail. Im trying to call the readFile() method in the run() method and its giving me the error
Name of Phonebook file to read in: myBook.txt
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 0
at Phonebook2.readFile(Phonebook2.java:28)
at Phonebook2.run(Phonebook2.java:36)
at Homework3.main(Homework3.java:8)

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;

public class Phonebook2
{  
  private File file;
  private int count = 0;
  private String[] contact = new String[count]; 
  private String[] number = new String[count];
  
  public void readFile() throws IOException
  {
    Scanner scan;
	scan = new Scanner(System.in);
    System.out.print("Name of Phonebook file to read in: "); 
	String txtFile = scan.next(); 
	file = new File(txtFile); 
	Scanner fileScan = new Scanner (file); 
    count = fileScan.nextInt(); 
	
	for (int i=0; i<count; i++)
		{
		  contact[i] = fileScan.next();
		  number[i] = fileScan.next();
		}	  
     System.out.println("Phonebook Successfully Read in!");
  }
  
  public void run() throws IOException
  { 
    readFile();
    Scanner scan;
	scan = new Scanner(System.in);
    String query ="";
	do{
	    System.out.print("Please enter a search query: ");
		query = scan.next();
		if (query.startsWith("^")) 
	      linearSearch(query);  
			
		if (!query.equals("*") && !query.startsWith("^"))
		    binarySearch(query);
	 } while(!query.equals("*"));
    System.out.print("Thank you for using this program!");
  }
  
  //Linear search Method
  public void linearSearch(String query) 
  {
	int found = 0; 
	String contactStr ="", numberStr ="";
	query = query.replace("^",""); 
	
	for (int i =0; i<count; i++)
	{
	  contactStr = contact[i];
	  numberStr = number[i];
	  
	  if (contactStr.toLowerCase().startsWith(query.toLowerCase()) || contactStr.toLowerCase().endsWith(query.toLowerCase())){
	    System.out.println(contactStr + " " + contactStr); 
        found = 1;
        break;	 
	  }
	}
    if (found == 0)
      System.out.println("***No Entry Found***");	
  }
  
  //Binary Search Method
  public void binarySearch(String query)
  {
    System.out.println("Binary search under construction");
  }
  
}

[Fubarable]

Have a look here:

  private int count = 0;
  private String[] contact = new String[count]; 
  private String[] number = new String[count];

count is 0 when you create your contact and number arrays, and so these arrays will only and always have 0 sizes meaning that they can hold no items at all. I suggest that yes, you declare your arrays at this location, but that you don't create new array objects until *after* you get a valid count value.

[RadicalNH]

Thanks for help, that makes sense. Wish I would have thought of that. On my nexus right now but will try to debug in the morning, thanks again!

[Fubarable]

You're welcome and good luck!

[RadicalNH]

Thanks it works now, I also closed a scan to early which also made it not work, eclipse is complaining about it being a resource leak. But im not really concerned about that right now hah.