Peter Johnson [http://community.jboss.org/people/peterj] replied to the discussion "Stupid question -Null Pointer Exception" To view the discussion, visit: http://community.jboss.org/message/553315#553315 -------------------------------------------------------------- An object in Java code is actually a reference to an object in the heap. If that reference has not been set, it is null. So the actual exception is a null reference excpetion. But the Java language was developed by people who had coded in C before, and C was the language used to write the JVM, so the misnomer of "null pointer excpetion" was used. -------------------------------------------------------------- Reply to this message by going to Community [http://community.jboss.org/message/553315#553315] Start a new discussion in Beginner's Corner at Community [http://community.jboss.org/choose-container!input.jspa?contentType=1&...]