Null Pointer Exception after checking with 'if' statement

Question

I'm getting a really annoying error, saying I'm getting a null pointer exception but there's an if statement to check to see if the text is null before proceeding:

    public String[] getFileData() throws IOException
{
    String file_name = "C:/Users/Liloka/Source/textfiles/Lines.txt";

    try {
        ReadFile file = new ReadFile(file_name);
        aryLines = file.OpenFile();

        for(int i =0; i<aryLines.length; i++)
        {
            System.out.println(aryLines[i]);
        }
    }

    catch(IOException e)
    {   
        System.out.println(e.getMessage());
    }
    return aryLines;
}

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt)
{
    if(evt.getSource() == enterBtn)
    {
        String Text = textToAdd.getText();
        if(!(Text.equals(null)))
        {
            RF.addNewElement(Text);
            System.out.println(Text);

            try
            {
                RF.writeToFile();
                getFileData();
            }
        catch(Exception e)
            {

            }
        }
        else    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Please enter a word!");
    }

}

The only time it even considered the 'else' was through this:

    if(Text.equals(null));

I've also tried doing:

   if(Text != null));

which has worked for me in the past but not now! Other classes are:

public String[] OpenFile() throws IOException
{
    FileReader fr = new FileReader(path);
    BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(fr);

    int numberOfLines = readLines();
    textData = new String[numberOfLines];
    int i;
        for(i=0; i<numberOfLines; i++)
        {
                textData[i] = br.readLine();
        }

    br.close();
    return textData;
}

int readLines() throws IOException
{
    FileReader file_to_read = new FileReader(path);
    BufferedReader bf = new BufferedReader(file_to_read);

    String aLine;
    numberOfLines=0;

    while((aLine = bf.readLine()) != null)
    {
        numberOfLines++;
    }
    //numberOfLines++;
    bf.close();
    return numberOfLines;
}

public void addNewElement(String newElement)
{   
    String texticles = newElement;
    numberOfLines = numberOfLines++;
    textData[numberOfLines] = texticles;
    //numberOfLines++; //Increments numberOfLines for the next element to be added
}

public void writeToFile() throws IOException
{
    FileWriter fstream = new FileWriter(path);
    BufferedWriter outFile = new BufferedWriter(fstream);
    //numberOfLines++;

        outFile.write(textData[numberOfLines]);
        //outFile.write(",");

        outFile.write("\r\n");

    outFile.close();
}

Thank you, again!

Error:

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException
at textfiles.JListExample.actionPerformed(JListExample.java:115)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)

I get the error when I've typed or not typed something and pressed the enter button.

This is the error for

if(Text != null)

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException
at textfiles.JListExample.actionPerformed(JListExample.java:115)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicButtonListener.mouseReleased(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue.access$000(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue$2.run(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue$2.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(Unknown Source)

Solution

 if(Text.equals(null));

The above will throw a NullPointerException each time Text is null. Anytime you use the "." operator on null you get a NullPointerException.

If you are getting a NPE after if(Text != null), please post the stack trace.