Problem connecting to database

Question

When I run the belwo code, though it gives me the message "Connected", when later in the program I try to use db_conn for praparing a statement, it gives me null pointer exception.
public Connection getConnection()
try {
Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver").newInstance();
String url = "jdbc:mysql:///" + "UNIVERSITY";
String user = "root";
String pass = "welcome123";
db_conn = DriverManager.getConnection(url,user,pass);
if((db_conn != null)&&(!db_conn.isClosed())) {
System.out.println("Connected..."); }
return db_conn;
catch(Exception e) {
System.out.println("Error in connecting to database " + e);     
System.exit(1); }
return null;
I've very little knowledge of JDBC and can't fiure out what's wrong in there. Any help is really appreciated.
Thanks

Answer 1

Don't crosspost:
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=790394&messageID=4491427#4491427