Nullpointerexception thrown when trying to findViewById

Question

I have the following Activity:

public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity {

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    if (savedInstanceState == null) {
        getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction()
                .add(R.id.container, new StartFragment())
                .commit();
    }

    Button login = (Button) findViewById(R.id.loginButton);

    login.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {

        @Override
        public void onClick(View arg0) {

            Intent intent = new Intent(MainActivity.this,LoginActivity.class);
            startActivity(intent);
        }
    });

}

I get a NPE when I try to invoke findViewByID for R.id.loginButton, and I'm guessing this is because loginButton is within a separate Fragment, which I have as:

public static class StartFragment extends Fragment {

    public StartFragment() {
    }
    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {

        return inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_main, container, false);

    }
}

However, I am unsure of how to fix this so that I can find the loginButton ID. I haven't worked with fragments before, so I realize I may be using them/implementing them incorrectly. fragment_main contains a few buttons in a LinearLayout, and activity_main has nothing but a single FrameLayout.

Answer 1

Write code to initialize button from fragment becuase your button is into fragment layout not into activity's layout.

@Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
        Bundle savedInstanceState) {

    View rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_main, container,
            false);
    Button login = (Button) rootView.findViewById(R.id.loginButton);
    login.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {

        @Override
        public void onClick(View arg0) {

            Intent intent = new Intent(MainActivity.this,
                    LoginActivity.class);
            startActivity(intent);
        }
    });

    return rootView;
}

And remove the login button related code from onCreate of Activity.

Answer 2

Try to implement your onCreateView(...) in Fragment like

@Override
 public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
 Bundle savedInstanceState) {
 View rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_main, container,
  false);

 View something = rootView.findViewById(R.id.something);
 something.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() { ... });

return rootView;
}

The Button is in the fragment layout (fragment_main.xml) and not in the activity layout (activity_main.xml). onCreate() is too early in the lifecycle to find it in the activity view hierarchy, and a null is returned. Invoking a method on null causes the NPE.

Answer 3

findViewById() works with reference to a root view. Without having a view in the first place will throw a null pointer exception

In any activity you set a view by calling setContentView(someView);. Thus when you call findViewById() , its with reference to the someView. Also findViewById() finds the id only if its in that someView. So in you case null pointer exception

For fragments, adapters, activity, .... any view's findViewById() will only find if the id exixts in the view Alternately if you are inflating a view, then you can also use inflatedView.findViewById() to get a view from that inflatedView

In short make sure you have the id in your layout you are referring to or make findViewById() call in appropriate place(Ex. adapters getView(), activity's onCreate() or onResume() or onPause() , fragments onCreateView(), ....)

Also have an idea about UI & background thread's as you cannot efficiently update UI in bg-threads