Java: null pointer exception when unboxing Integer?

Question

This code is causing a null pointer exception. I have no idea why:

private void setSiblings(PhylogenyTree node, Color color) throws InvalidCellNumberException {
    PhylogenyTree parent = node.getParent();

    for (PhylogenyTree sibling : parent.getChildren()) {
        if (! sibling.equals(node)) {
            Animal animal = sibling.getAnimal();
            BiMap<PhylogenyTree, Integer> inverse = cellInfo.inverse();
            int cell = inverse.get(animal); // null pointer exception here
            setCellColor(cell, color);
        }
    }
}

I've examined it in the debugger, and all the local variables are non-null. How else could this be happening? The BiMap is from Google Collections.

Answer 1

The null pointer exception is a result of unboxing the result of inverse.get(animal). If inverse doesn't contain the key animal, it returns null, "of type" Integer. Given that the assignment is to an int reference, Java unboxes the value into an int, resulting in a null pointer exception.

You should either check for inverse.containsKey(animal) or use Integer as the local variable type to avoid unboxing and act accordingly. The proper mechanism depends on your context.