This should be all the code you need, tell me if you need more, but there is a lot..

public void DeNull(String[] INS)
{
System.out.println("Inside DeNull");
int Counter = 0;
while (Counter < 100)
{
if (INS[Counter].equals(null))
{
INS[Counter] = new String("Z");
}

Counter++;
}
}

I get this error obviously from inside this function:

Inside DeNull
java.lang.NullPointerException
at NumberType.DeNull(stringMath.java:344)
at NumberType.FuncOO(stringMath.java:235)
at NumberType.SecondStage(stringMath.java:143)
at NumberType.<init>(stringMath.java:91)
at stringMath.paint(stringMath.java:33)
at sun.awt.RepaintArea.paint(RepaintArea.java:177)
at sun.awt.motif.MComponentPeer.handleEvent(MComponentPeer.java:405)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:3678)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:1627)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:3477)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:456)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:201)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:151)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:145)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:137)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:100)


so how would i properly test for a blank string and initilize it to a capital Z?

I already tried:
if (INS[Counter].equals(""))
it did not work.

if (INS[Counter].equals(null))

That is the problem. If the INS[x] is null, you cannot call its method "equals" in the first place. That's why "NullPointer exception" occur.


The correct one is this,

if (INS[Counter] == null)

thanx, I figured that out almost immediately after asking, thanx again.

never call methods on a variable which could be null. For comparison, your code fragment should have read

but if you were testing to see if it were equal to something else, it should have been this:

because the literal "aString" can never be null, it will always always be "aString". Keep this in mind and you'll save yourself loads of trouble with hard to read error messages and stack traces.

HTH

B.