Null pointer - need help!

Question

Hi All,
I have a problem and I am not sure what to do.
I need to swap the sql queries below based on the status being passed into the method. However, when I try to set the query in an if statement - the line:
rs = state.executeQuery(query);will not compile. I get a cannot resolve symbol error message on query.
If I try to move the lines:
state = conn.createStatement();
rs = state.executeQuery(query);into the if statement - The line:
while(rs.next()) {will give me a null pointer.
So could someone give me an idea on how I could swap my query in and not get these errors? I really dont know what to do!
Thanks,
punnk
public Tool findReportLabel(String newID, Tool tool, String status) {
        int colCount = tool.getColumns();
        String fields = null;
        ArrayList reportLabels = new ArrayList();
        System.out.println("FIND REPORT LABEL - " + status);
        try {
            this.conn = database.SybaseDAO.grabConnection();
            if(status == "due") {
                String query = "SELECT * FROM MT."+newID+"_WEB_HEADERS WHERE ID='5'";
                System.out.println("HITS - DUE");
            if(status == "wait") {
                String query = "SELECT * FROM MT."+newID+"_WEB_HEADERS WHERE ID='6'";
                System.out.println("HITS - WAIT");
            state = conn.createStatement();
            rs = state.executeQuery(query);
            while(rs.next()) {
                for (int x = 0; x < colCount; x++ ) {
                    fields = rs.getString("Header"+(x+1));
                    reportLabels.add(fields);
                    tool.setReportLabels(reportLabels);
            rs.close();
            rs = null;
            state.close();
            state = null;
            conn.close();
            conn = null; 
        } catch(SQLException e) { System.out.println("3Failed to connect: " + e);
        } finally {
        return tool;
    }

Answer 1

I need to swap the sql queries below based on the status being passed into
the method. However, when I try to set the query in an if statement - the line:
rs = state.executeQuery(query);that is because query is decalred in the if block...
do something like this
Statement stm = null;
ResultSet  res = null;
String sql = null;
try{
    if(status == "due") {
        sql = "SELECT * FROM MT."+newID+"_WEB_HEADERS WHERE ID='5'";
    else if(status == "wait") {
        sql = "SELECT * FROM MT."+newID+"_WEB_HEADERS WHERE ID='6'";
    this.conn = database.SybaseDAO.grabConnection();
    stm = conn.createStatement();
    res = stm.executeQuery(sql);
    while (res.next()){
        // do something
catch (Exception e){
    e.printStackTrace();
finally{
   try{ res.close(); } catch (Exception ee){}
   try{ stm.close(); } catch (Exception ee){}
}