Null pointer error if not started with 1st in string

Question

hi, this little pratice is about building a simple shopping cart. the TOAD.JSP will display the item list and quantity, user could check item and input the quantity that they want. if the user input larger quantity than database, servlet will sent the back to TOAD.jsp and show message. now it works if selected from 1 item, but if selected 2nd or 3rd, it will have null pointer error over here:
for(int i=0; i<ItemList.size(); i++)
newit = (ItemBean)ItemList.get(i);
if (item != null && item.equals(newit.getItem()) )
%>
<tr>
<td ><input type="checkbox" name = "item" value="<%= newit.getItem() %>"><b><%= newit.getItem() %> </b><br></td>
<td><input type=text name="<%= newit.getItem() %>Qty" value="<%= orderQty%>"></td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan = 2>
<font size="3" color="red">
The item <%= newit.getItem() %> is NOT available in stock</font>
</td>
</tr>
<%
} else {
%>
<tr>
<td ><input type="checkbox" name = "item" value="<%= newit.getItem() %>"><b><%= newit.getItem() %> </b><br></td>
<td><b><input type=text name="<%= newit.getItem() %>Qty" value="<%= newit.getQty()%>"></b> </td>
</tr>
<%
%>
thanks for your time!

Answer 1

You have prvided unsufficent information and poorly formatted code and as such no meaningful answer can given you at present.
But here is the best that one can guess at.
You have a null somewhere.
Is it coming from this code? I am going to say no.
Where does it come from? I don't know.
Where should you look? In the code that does processing to see what happens when yuo have more than one item.
What should you do next? Start putting in some debugging and tracing statements to see where you are heading off into the null abyss.