IndexOutOfBounds. How should you store data from resultSet into an ArrayList?

So, I have a method that (should) return a String containing a data from a sqlite database:

public String getLesson() throws ClassNotFoundException {
    ArrayList list = new ArrayList();

    int selectedColumn = tblOpenLesson.getSelectedColumn();
    int selectedRow = tblOpenLesson.getSelectedRow();
    String name = (String) tblOpenLesson.getModel().getValueAt(selectedRow, selectedColumn);

    try {
        Class.forName("org.sqlite.JDBC");
        Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:sqlite:sql_items.sqlite");
        Statement stmtGetLesson = con.createStatement();
        ResultSet rs = stmtGetLesson.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM lessons WHERE lesson_id  = '" + name + "';");

        if (rs.next()) {
            list.add(rs.getString("lesson"));
        }
    } catch (SQLException e) {
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, e);
    } catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) {
        Logger.getLogger(openLesson.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
    }

    return (String) list.get(0);
}

and I would use that string to locate a text file by which its content will be displayed on a JTextPane that is located from another class

private void btnOpenLessonPopUpActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {                                                   

    try {
        FileReader fr = new FileReader("Lessons\\" + getLesson() + ".txt"); //this is Line 126

        try (BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(fr)) {
            mainScreen.lessonPane.read(br, null); //  lessonPane is from another class
            br.close();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            System.out.println(e);
            this.setVisible(false);
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) {
            Logger.getLogger(openLesson.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        }  
    }

however I am getting this error:

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 0, Size: 0 at java.util.ArrayList.rangeCheck(ArrayList.java:657) at java.util.ArrayList.get(ArrayList.java:433) at mainWindow.openLesson.getLesson(openLesson.java:204) at mainWindow.openLesson.btnOpenLessonPopUpActionPerformed(openLesson.java:126) at mainWindow.openLesson.access$000(openLesson.java:19) at mainWindow.openLesson$1.actionPerformed(openLesson.java:60) at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2022) at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2348) at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(DefaultButtonModel.java:402) at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(DefaultButtonModel.java:259) at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicButtonListener.mouseReleased(BasicButtonListener.java:252) at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Component.java:6539) at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(JComponent.java:3324) at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Component.java:6304) at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Container.java:2239) at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4889) at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2297) at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4711) at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Container.java:4904) at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Container.java:4535) at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Container.java:4476) at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2283) at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Window.java:2746) at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4711) at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:760) at java.awt.EventQueue.access$500(EventQueue.java:97) at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:709) at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:703) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:74) at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:84) at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:733) at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:731) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:74) at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:730) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:205) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:116) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:105) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:101) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:93) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:82)

I don't think I have any idea of why this is happening. I'm still new to programming.

Solution

Difficult to say without knowing the structure of your data, however, from your query: "SELECT * FROM lessons WHERE lesson_id = '" + name + "';" it seems that you are trying to match the lesson_id with the name of the lesson your are getting.

It could also be that String name = (String) tblOpenLesson.getModel().getValueAt(selectedRow, selectedColumn); doesn't give you what you'd expect.

On another note, you really need to look into Prepared Statements. As is, your application is prone to SQL injection.

Personally, I would also refactor the code so that:

if (rs.next()) {
    list.add(rs.getString("lesson"));
}

Becomes:

if (rs.next()) {
    return rs.getString("lesson");
}

And this: return (String) list.get(0); becomes return "";.