null strings

I want to open a text file and read in the lines until there are no more lines to read. So I have commands that look something like this:

try{
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("importantfile.txt"));
line = "not null";
while (line != null){
line = reader.readLine();
doImportantStuff(line);
}
reader.close();
}catch(IOException ex){
ex.printStackTrace;
}

But I am wondering, won't this stop reading lines as soon as a blank line is read? What is the difference between these?

String line = null
String line = ""

And if line==null, will this give you an error?
int x = line.length();

Originally posted by Kevin Tysen:
...What is the difference between these?

String line = null
String line = ""

And if line==null, will this give you an error?
int x = line.length();

"" is an empty String (an object). But "null" means that the variable has no object to point to. So what happens when you try to dereference a null value?

I suspect your loop is not going to do what you want. Try to "play computer" and imagine an empty file. The first read gives you a null. What happens as it is written?

Thank you!