Error while getting integer from file(Convert String to Int)

Question

I have a file: student.txt

1      Adam     50       50       50

2      Eric     34       28       38

3      Joash    44       48       49

4      Bill     34       30       45

I have 2 classes: 1 is main and another one does all the work.

// Class 1 ******************

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        readfile a = new readfile();
        a.openFile();
        a.readFile();
        a.closeFile();
    }
}

// ********* Class 2

import java.util.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.lang.*;

public class readfile {

    private Scanner x;

    public void openFile(){
        try{
            x = new Scanner(new File("student.txt"));

        }
        catch(Exception e){
            System.out.println("Error");
        }
    }
    public void readFile(){
        int a=0;
        String b;
        int c=0;
        int d = 0;
        int e = 0;
        int total;
        while(x.hasNext()){
             a = x.next();
             b = x.next();
             c = x.next();
             d = x.next();
             e = x.next();
             int total = c+d+e;
             total = x.nextInt();
            System.out.printf("%s %s %s %s %s %s/n",a,b,c,d,e,total);
        }
    }
    public void closeFile(){
        x.close();
    }
}

I have 2 errors:

1) This is at a = x.next(); where it says

Can't convert from String to int.

Can you tell me how to fix that?

2) This is at:

Exception in thread "main"

Error java.lang.NullPointerException

How do I fix this?

Answer 1

Try:

a = Integer.parseInt(x.next());

Instead of

a = x.next();

And you may try using

a = x.nextInt();

Answer 2

Scanner.next() returns the next token as a String. When java tries to set int a to a String, an error occurs. You can fix this by using Scanner.nextInt(), which will return the next token as an integer, or throw an error if the next token is not an int. If