Slight Issue with JTextField Returning Null

Question

Hey everyone,
I just have a slight problem involving a null value returned when I call the getText method of a textField, even when there is text in the field.
Here is the code to create the GUI
  public static void createGUI()
       JFrame frame = new JFrame("Chatter");
       frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
       JPanel panel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
       panel.add(new ChatterGui(), BorderLayout.CENTER);
       panel.add(new JPanel(), BorderLayout.NORTH);
       panel.add(new JPanel(), BorderLayout.SOUTH);
       panel.add(new JPanel(), BorderLayout.EAST);
       panel.add(new JPanel(), BorderLayout.WEST);
       frame.add(panel);
       frame.pack();
       frame.setVisible(true);
  }Here is the constructor of the ChatterGui class
  public ChatterGui()
       super(new GridBagLayout());
       JTextField chatInput = new JTextField(50);
       chatInput.addActionListener(this);
       chatInput.setFocusable(true);
       JTextArea chatList = new JTextArea(30, 50);
       chatList.setEditable(false);
       JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(chatList);
       JButton submit = new JButton("Submit");
       submit.addActionListener(this);
       GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints();
       c.gridwidth = GridBagConstraints.REMAINDER;
       c.fill = GridBagConstraints.BOTH;
       add(scrollPane, c);
       c.weightx = 1.0;
       c.weighty = 1.0;
       c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
       add(new JPanel(), c);
       c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
       add(chatInput, c);
       c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
       add(new JPanel(), c);
       c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
       add(submit, c);
  }and here is the code for the actionListener for the JButton and the JTextField
  public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt)
       chatInput.selectAll();
       String in = chatInput.getText();
       Grammar.parseQuestion(in);
       chatList.append("User: " + in + "\n");
       chatList.append("Computer: " + Global.currentResponse + "\n");
       Global.flushResponse();
       chatInput.setText("");
  }Any help would be appreciated, here's a link to the full code if its needed [http://pastebin.com/m9fc91a9].

Answer 1

     JTextField chatInput = new JTextField(50);This chatInput is a local variable.
     chatInput.selectAll();Whatever this 'chatInput' is, it isn't the one above.
It seems to me that your real problem must be an NPE using 'chatInput'.