Problems quicksorting my linkedlist (extention from other thread)

Question

Ok so now that I've got my concepts down I went to do a sort method and I'm having problems with my sort method. (the previous thread with my actual class is http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10222048)
Here is the sort method. Can anyone help me figure out what I'm doing wrong? (for reference..I'm getting a NullPointerException somewhere)
public WordList sort()
          Node pivotNode=head;
          remove(head.data);
          WordList small = new WordList(br);
          WordList big = new WordList(br);
          Node first = head;
          while(first!=null)
               if(first.data.compareTo(pivotNode.data)<0)
                    small.add(first.data);
               else
                    big.add(first.data);
               first=first.next;
          big.addToFront(pivotNode.data);
          small = small.sort();
          big = big.sort();
          while(big.head!=null)
               small.add(big.head.data);
               big.head=big.head.next;
          return small;
     }

Answer 1

remove(head.data);
Node first = head;
if(first.data.compareTo(pivotNode.data)<0)Looking at those statements in order, I see the possiblity for a problem with null.
Wouldn't first.data be null?
Edited by: Newworld20 on Apr 24, 2008 3:42 PM