Why did Servlet.service() for servlet jsp throw this exception?

Question

I get the following error, what could be the problem?

My context descriptor:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">
   <servlet>
    <servlet-name>UploadServlet</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>controller.UploadServlet</servlet-class>
  </servlet>
   <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>UploadServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/UploadServlet</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
  <welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
  </welcome-file-list>
</web-app>

SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet jsp threw exception
java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.apache.jsp.index_jsp._jspInit(index_jsp.java:22)
    at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.init(HttpJspBase.java:52)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.getServlet(JspServletWrapper.java:159)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:329)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:342)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:267)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:128)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:849)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:454)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Feb 23, 2010 11:35:28 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve invoke
SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet jsp threw exception
java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.apache.jsp.index_jsp._jspInit(index_jsp.java:22)
    at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.init(HttpJspBase.java:52)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.getServlet(JspServletWrapper.java:159)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:329)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:342)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:267)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:128)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:849)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:454)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

It seems it is coming from youy index.jsp file, could you past it ? — Kartoch, Feb 23 '10 at 21:57

score 39 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 23 '10 at 22:44

39

It can be caused by a classpath contamination. Check that you /WEB-INF/lib doesn't contain something like jsp-api-*.jar.

answered Feb 23 '10 at 22:44

axtavt

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Manually deleting the jar file solved the problem. Thank you. – tkt986 Sep 03 '12 at 03:32
2

thx this was my case, how can I avoid this from happening again? – tomasb Sep 18 '12 at 20:36
I have the same problem, but even after removing the file it still throws the same exception. I would appreciate it if you could help me out, my question is at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22086406/why-am-i-receiving-nullpointerexception-on-my-jsp-file – AlexCartio1 Feb 28 '14 at 04:45
2

I have the same error but i don´t have that library, I have jsr173_api.jar, jsr181-api.jar, jsr250-api.jar and jaxb-api.jar, could anyone of this cause a problem? – UrielUVD Jun 11 '15 at 20:35
Deleting jars from this folder solved my problem. Thanks – Alexey Oct 21 '15 at 10:21
My former coworker left me with code ClassName.java and ClassName.Old.java (Checked in to version control of course). Getting rid of the .Old files, which still had classes named "ClassName" fixed my issue. – Brent Sandstrom Feb 12 '18 at 22:02
No I don't have any JAR with such a name still I am getting the excption... Please help. – Adarsh Singh Mar 19 '19 at 14:53

score 15 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 13 '12 at 04:52

If your project is Maven-based, remember to set scope to provided for such dependencies as servlet-api, jsp-api. Otherwise, these jars will be exported to WEB-INF/lib and hence contaminate with those in Tomcat server. That causes painful problems.

<dependency>
  <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
  <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
  <version>2.5</version>
  <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
  <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
  <version>2.1</version>
  <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>

i have set the scope as can be seen above but it is still happening, any other hints? — tomasb, Sep 18 '12 at 21:07

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 01 '10 at 04:16

I had this error; it happened somewhat spontaneously, and the page would halt in the browser in the middle of an HTML tag (not a section of code). It was baffling!

Turns out, I let a variable go out of scope and the garbage collector swept it away and then I tried to use it. Thus the seemingly-random timing.

To give a more concrete example... Inside a method, I had something like:

Foo[] foos = new Foo[20];
// fill up the "foos" array...
return Arrays.asList(foos); // this returns type List<Foo>

Now in my JSP page, I called that method and used the List object returned by it. The List object is backed by that "foos" array; but, the array went out of scope when I returned from the method (since it is a local variable). So shortly after returning, the garbage collector swept away the "foos" array, and my access to the List caused a NullPointerException since its underlying array was now wiped away.

I actually wondered, as I wrote the above method, whether that would happen.

The even deeper underlying problem was premature optimization. I wanted a list, but I knew I would have exactly 20 elements, so I figured I'd try to be more efficient than new ArrayList<Foo>(20) which only sets an initial size of 20 but can possibly be less efficient than the method I used. So of course, to fix it, I just created my ArrayList, filled it up, and returned it. No more strange error.

brabster · Answer 4 · 2010-02-23T22:17:14.320

4

The problem is in your JSP, most likely you are calling a method on an object that is null at runtime.

It is happening in the _jspInit() call, which is a little more unusual... the problem code is probably a method declaration like <%! %>

Update: I've only reproduced this by overriding the _jspInit() method. Is that what you're doing? If so, it's not recommended - that's why it starts with an _.

edited Feb 23 '10 at 22:17

answered Feb 23 '10 at 22:00

brabster

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score 2 · Answer 5 · answered May 06 '16 at 18:14

I tried my best to follow the answers given above. But I have below reason for the same.

Note: This is for maven+eclipse+tomcat deployment and issue faced especially with spring mvc.

1- If you are including servlet and jsp dependency please mark them provided in scope.

<dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>3.1.0</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.servlet.jsp-api</artifactId>
        <version>2.3.1</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

Possibly you might be including jstl as dependency. So, jsp-api.jar and servlet-api.jar will be included along. So, require to exclude the servlet-api and jsp-api being deployed as required lib in target or in "WEB-INF/lib" as given below.

<dependency>
    <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp.jstl</groupId>
    <artifactId>jstl-api</artifactId>
    <version>1.2</version>
    <exclusions>
        <exclusion>
            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
            <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
        </exclusion>
    </exclusions>
</dependency>

Why did Servlet.service() for servlet jsp throw this exception?

5 Answers5

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