App crashing when trying to use RecyclerView on android 5.0

Question

I'm trying to mess with the new RecyclerView and whenever I try to run it, my app immediately crashes. It gives me NullPointerException for trying to access methods from android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView. I've looked at other posts and saw that most people didn't have compile 'com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:+' but I tried that and it hasn't helped at all. Not really sure what to do at this point, any help would be appreciated. Here the error log: (I would post a picture but I don't have 10 rep yet)

java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'void android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView$LayoutManager.onMeasure(android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView$Recycler, android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView$State, int, int)' on a null object reference
        at android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView.onMeasure(RecyclerView.java:1764)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:17430)
        at android.widget.RelativeLayout.measureChildHorizontal(RelativeLayout.java:727)
        at android.widget.RelativeLayout.onMeasure(RelativeLayout.java:463)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:17430)
        at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:5463)
        at android.widget.FrameLayout.onMeasure(FrameLayout.java:430)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:17430)
        at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:5463)
        at android.widget.FrameLayout.onMeasure(FrameLayout.java:430)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:17430)
        at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:5463)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.measureChildBeforeLayout(LinearLayout.java:1436)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.measureVertical(LinearLayout.java:722)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.onMeasure(LinearLayout.java:613)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:17430)
        at android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout.onMeasure(DrawerLayout.java:851)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:17430)
        at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:5463)
        at android.widget.FrameLayout.onMeasure(FrameLayout.java:430)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:17430)
        at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:5463)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.measureChildBeforeLayout(LinearLayout.java:1436)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.measureVertical(LinearLayout.java:722)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.onMeasure(LinearLayout.java:613)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:17430)
        at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:5463)
        at android.widget.FrameLayout.onMeasure(FrameLayout.java:430)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:17430)
        at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:5463)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.measureChildBeforeLayout(LinearLayout.java:1436)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.measureVertical(LinearLayout.java:722)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.onMeasure(LinearLayout.java:613)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:17430)
        at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:5463)
        at android.widget.FrameLayout.onMeasure(FrameLayout.java:430)
        at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.onMeasure(PhoneWindow.java:2560)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:17430)
        at android.view.ViewRootImpl.performMeasure(ViewRootImpl.java:2001)
        at android.view.ViewRootImpl.measureHierarchy(ViewRootImpl.java:1166)
        at android.view.ViewRootImpl.performTraversals(ViewRootImpl.java:1372)
        at android.view.ViewRootImpl.doTraversal(ViewRootImpl.java:1054)
        at android.view.ViewRootImpl$TraversalRunnable.run(ViewRootImpl.java:5786)
        at android.view.Choreographer$CallbackRecord.run(Choreographer.java:767)
        at android.view.Choreographer.doCallbacks(Choreographer.java:580)
        at android.view.Choreographer.doFrame(Choreographer.java:550)
        at android.view.Choreographer$FrameDisplayEventReceiver.run(Choreographer.java:753)
        at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:739)
        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:135)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5221)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:372)
        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:898)
        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:693)

Answer 1

This issue usually occurs when no LayoutManager was provided for the RecyclerView. You can do it like so:

final LinearLayoutManager layoutManager = new LinearLayoutManager(context);
layoutManager.setOrientation(LinearLayoutManager.VERTICAL);
recyclerView.setLayoutManager(layoutManager);