Java, toLowerCase(), nullPointerException

Question

I am writing a program in java that works with Postgresql. Records in database have different languages, such as English, french and Spanish. While using searching I'm getting nullPointerException when a program comes to converting of the record from database (customer name) toLowerCase(). My problem is that I don't know the language of processed record, because characters looks similar.

Question: are there alternatives for toLowerCase() that compares characters without specifying a locale, just by comparing character by character and if one is different that another one, it returns false. Simply if Chinese character is different than the English one, return false.

Something like a = a returns true, but a = 诶 returns false, without giving me nullPointException.

You can try use `for` cycle to find out, if the letter is in right part of ASCII table. — Sk1X1, Jul 04 '13 at 14:38
Thank you, vitaliy, Stefan and eternay. Problem is solved. I apologize. Problem was more simple. I just had records with null values in my database. — Max, Jul 04 '13 at 14:43
As I said, your problem wasn't the `toLowerCase()` method and the comparison; it was the `NullPointerException`. — eternay, Jul 04 '13 at 14:47

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 04 '13 at 14:36

0

.equals() does what you want. You must be trying to call a method (toLowerCase()?) on a null string.

answered Jul 04 '13 at 14:36

vitaly

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 04 '13 at 15:30

0

You must use string1.equals(string2) method.

Before use it, check if string1==null || string2==null

answered Jul 04 '13 at 15:30

nap.gab

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score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 04 '13 at 14:33

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Try String.equalsIgnoreCase() method, but it won't solve your NullPointerException. You have to look for the reason of this exception.

answered Jul 04 '13 at 14:33

eternay

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Java, toLowerCase(), nullPointerException

3 Answers3