why it throws NullPointerException

HI ranchers ,i am new to Files concept,
kindly go thru the code and let me know my mistake
thanks

import java.io.*;
class Files
{
public static void main(String args[]) throws NullPointerException
{
String dirName="c:/Test";
File f=new File(dirName,"work.txt");
File f3=new File(dirName,"renFile.txt");
System.out.println("File name is :"+f.getName());
System.out.println("Path of the file is :"+f.getPath());
System.out.println(" Parent directory is :"+f.getParent());
System.out.println("Listing the contents of directory");
File f1=new File(dirName);
String s[]=f1.list();
for(int i=0;i<s.length;i++)
{
File f2=new File("\t"+dirName+"/"+s[i]);
if(f2.isDirectory())
{
System.out.println("\t"+s[i]+"is a directory");
}
else
{
System.out.println("\t"+s[i]+"is a file");
}
}
}
}

Jenny,
When you run the code, it tells you what line the NullPointer is on. Can you post that (along with which line in your code that it corresponds to) ?

File name is :work.txt
Path of the file is :c:\Test\work.txt
Parent directory is :c:\Test
Listing the contents of directory
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
at Files.main(Files.java:15)

I'm not on a Windows machine, but my guess is that the problem is...

String dirName="c:/Test";

Shouldn't this use a backslash instead of a forward slash? If this isn't a valid directory, then you're going to get null with...

String s[]=f1.list();

...and then a NullPointerException when you try to call s.length.

File f=new File(dirName,"work.txt");

what does the above line do"?

does it create a new file named work.txt or should there be a file already excisting under the name work.txt

i don't follow the code completely

help me to understand the concepts of accessing file and its properties

hi marc

String dirName="c:/Test";

there is nothing wrong in the above line,i double checked

anyway i tried creating a folder named test,now it didn't throw exception,

but can u explain the code,what it is actually doing

thanks

Originally posted by Jenny raj:
...i tried creating a folder named test,now it didn't throw exception...

That's the issue. There was no directory called "test" on C, and so you got null from...

String s[]=f1.list();

...and then a NullPointerException when you tried to call s.length.

The I/O chapter from Thinking in Java does a nice job of working with File objects. See if that helps.