Help with Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException

Question

I got this exception while running the code in Netbeans IDE 6.1. The code is compiling fine...Please tell me what the problem is
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
at Softwareguide.chooseanswer(Softwareguide.java:32)
at Driver.main(Driver.java:7)
public class Driver
    public static void main(String[] args)
        Softwareguide swguide = new Softwareguide();
        swguide.chooseanswer();
public class Softwareguide
    State test1;
    State test2;
    State test3;
    State test4;
    State test5;
    State subtest1;
    State subtest2;
    State subtest3;
    State subtest4;
    State subtest5;
    State state = test1;
    public Softwareguide()
        test1 = new Test1(this);
        test2 = new Test2(this);
        test3 = new Test3(this);
        test4 = new Test4(this);
        test5 = new Test5(this);
        subtest1 = new SubTest1(this);
        subtest2 = new SubTest2(this);
        subtest3 = new SubTest3(this);
        subtest4 = new SubTest4(this);
        subtest5 = new SubTest5(this);
    public void chooseanswer()
        state.chooseanswer();
   /* public void chooseyes()
        state.chooseyes();
    public void chooseno()
        state.chooseno();
    public State getState()
        return state;
    void setState(State state)
     this.state = state;
    public State getTest1State()
        return test1;
    public State getTest2State()
        return test2;
    public State getTest3State()
        return test3;
    public State getTest4State()
        return test4;
    public State getTest5State()
        return test5;
    public State getsubTest1State()
        return subtest1;
    public State getsubTest2State()
        return subtest2;
    public State getsubTest3State()
        return subtest3;
    public State getsubTest4State()
        return subtest4;
    public State getsubTest5State()
        return subtest5;
    public String toString()
        StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer();
        result.append("\n Starting Diagnostic Test...");
        return result.toString();
}

Answer 1

spiderjava wrote:
the variable state is assigned to test1. This variable(test1) is not initialized anywhere.It is initialized in the c'tor. Which is invoked after the "global" object and attribute initialization. So it is there, but comes too late.
You should definitly not write a technical Java blog and post it all over the place.