Error while reading empty value in DOM

Question

While I try to read an xml file with data similar to this
<DisplaySettings>
<Option1>Company</Option1>
<Option2>Author</Option2>
<Option3 />
<Option4>Project</Option4>
<Option5>Reference</Option5>
</DisplaySettings>
when it comes to assigining data from Option3 it throws a null pointer exception. This is the assignment statement
for (int i=0; i<nodeLength; i++) {  
element = (Element) nodelist.item(i);
//this throws an error since there is no value
nodeValues[i] = element.getFirstChild().getNodeValue();
System.out.println( "Node :"+ i +".."+ nodeValues);
Please help me to read the contents of a element to see if they are empty elements
regards
Thahir

Answer 1

for (int i=0; i<nodeLength; i++) {
element = (Element) nodelist.item(i);
if((element.getFirstChild())!=null)
nodeValues = element.getFirstChild().getNodeValue();
System.out.println( "Node :"+ i +".."+ nodeValues);