Statement NullPointerException

Question

I have a class that contains the following 2 methods;
public void accessDatabase()
     try
          Class.forName("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver");
          connection = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:oracle:thin:@ELLP102615:1521:PE9I", USER,PASSWORD);
     }// End of Try Statement.
     catch(Exception e) {}// End of Catch Statement.
}// End of accessDatabase Method.
public Vector readCourse(Vector v)
     try
          statement = connection.createStatement(ResultSet.TYPE_SCROLL_INSENSITIVE, ResultSet.CONCUR_UPDATABLE);
          String query = "SELECT COURSE_CODE "+
          "FROM COURSE";
          results = statement.executeQuery(query);
          while(results.next())
               v.add(results.getString("COURSE_CODE"));
          }// End of While Statement.
     }// End of Try Statement.
     catch(SQLException sqle) {}// End of Catch Statement.
     return v;
}// End of readCourse Method.
From another class, I open the connection using the accessDatabase method which works great. However, when I try to use the second method, a nullpointerexception is thrown because of the statement. Any idea what's wrong with it?? I apoloize to those who don't like the way I posted my code since I still don't have a clue as to how to do it like others...

Answer 1

Well, you're catching the Exception when you're creating your statement, but aren't doing anything at all to let you know if something has gone wrong. What's to say that a SQLException isn't occuring when you try to establish your connection, and thus your connection is never established. In this case, your connection object would be null, and would throw the NullPointerException when createStatement() is called.
Why not print out your exception at the very least in order to see what's happening inside that accessDatabase() method.