Please!! somebody help me to read a xml

Question

hi
my problem is that I can't read a value of a one particular Node
let's me show you my source code.
apparently all is fine, by I don't know WHY damn appear un
NullPoninterExceeption in the line with the comentary /**here**/
public String getValue(String val){
DocumentBuilderFactory docBuilderFactory =
DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
DocumentBuilder docBuilder = null;
String val2 = null;
boolean encontrado = false;
try {
docBuilder = docBuilderFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
} catch (ParserConfigurationException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
try {
doc = docBuilder.parse(new File("file.xml"));
} catch (SAXException e1) {
e1.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e1) {
e1.printStackTrace();
Element root = doc.getDocumentElement();
if (root.getTagName().equalsIgnoreCase("MyRootTag")){
     NodeList kids = root.getChildNodes();
     Node kid;
     for (int i = 0; i < kids.getLength(); i++) {
     kid = kids.item(i);
     if (kid instanceof Element &&
     ((Element)kid).getTagName().equalsIgnoreCase(val)) {
          val2 = getUrl((Element)kid);
return val2;
public String getUrl(Element kid){
Node node = kid.getFirstChild();
String val = null;
while (node != null) {
if (node instanceof Element) {
     Element e = (Element)node;
val = e.getNodeValue().trim();/**here**/
     return val;
node = node.getNextSibling();
return val;
the XML is :
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rootag>
<val1>
<anyThing>xxxxxxxx</anyThing>
</val1>
<val2>
<anyThing>xxxxxxxx</anyThing>
</val2>
<val3>
<anyThing>xxxxxxxx</anyThing>
</val3>
</campaigns>

Answer 1

change:
val = e.getNodeValue().trim();/**here**/
to :
System.out.println("e="+e);
System.out.println("e.getNodeValue()="+e.getNodeValue());
val = e.getNodeValue().trim();/**here**/
if one of the outputs prints null, then you have your bug. do not assume getNodeValue() to never be null! ...
see also: http://java.sun.com/webservices/docs/1.2/tutorial/doc/JAXPSAX3.html