Connection problem(error 500), please help

Question

Hello Im a newbie to db connections with java
ive written a servlet to acces mymy hsql db(sample):
String dbURL = "jdbc:hsqldb:" + getServletContext().getRealPath("/~mazzok/myDB");
Class.forName("org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver");
conn = DriverManager.getConnection(dbURL, "user", "pass");
} catch (Exception e) {
out.println("<br>ERROR: Could not connect to database<br>");
out.print(e);
Statement stat = null;
try {
stat = conn.createStatement();
the problem is stat = conn.createStatement(); which throws a NullPointer exception(error 500)
why is this the case, isnt the connection already running, when it comes to this line?
I dont understand it quite..
Pls could you help me?
Regards
maz

Answer 1

stat = conn.createStatement();I guess that's because your conn==null. Make sure your dbURL value can build a correct connection.