Attempt to invoke virtual method `void android.widget.Button.setOnClickListener` on a null object reference

Question

I have been getting an error while calling the OnClickListener and so on. This is the error I am getting:

07/12 14:07:52: Launching 'app' on Pixel 3a XL API 30.
$ adb shell am start -n "com.example.myapplication/com.example.myapplication.MainActivity" -a android.intent.action.MAIN -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER
Connected to process 7655 on device 'emulator-5554'.
Capturing and displaying logcat messages from application. This behavior can be disabled in the "Logcat output" section of the "Debugger" settings page.
D/ApplicationLoaders: Returning zygote-cached class loader: /system/framework/android.test.base.jar
D/NetworkSecurityConfig: No Network Security Config specified, using platform default
D/NetworkSecurityConfig: No Network Security Config specified, using platform default
D/libEGL: loaded /vendor/lib/egl/libEGL_emulation.so
D/libEGL: loaded /vendor/lib/egl/libGLESv1_CM_emulation.so
D/libEGL: loaded /vendor/lib/egl/libGLESv2_emulation.so
W/e.myapplicatio: Accessing hidden method Landroid/view/View;->computeFitSystemWindows(Landroid/graphics/Rect;Landroid/graphics/Rect;)Z (greylist, reflection, allowed)
W/e.myapplicatio: Accessing hidden method Landroid/view/ViewGroup;->makeOptionalFitsSystemWindows()V (greylist, reflection, allowed)
D/AndroidRuntime: Shutting down VM
E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
    Process: com.example.myapplication, PID: 7655
java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.example.myapplication/com.example.myapplication.MainActivity}: java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'void android.widget.Button.setOnClickListener(android.view.View$OnClickListener)' on a null object reference
    at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3449)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3601)
    at android.app.servertransaction.LaunchActivityItem.execute(LaunchActivityItem.java:85)
    at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.executeCallbacks(TransactionExecutor.java:135)
    at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.execute(TransactionExecutor.java:95)
    at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2066)
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:106)
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:223)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7656)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
    at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:592)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:947)
 Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'void android.widget.Button.setOnClickListener(android.view.View$OnClickListener)' on a null object reference
    at com.example.myapplication.MainActivity.onCreate(MainActivity.java:19)
    at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:7995)
    at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:7979)
    at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1309)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3422)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3601) 
    at android.app.servertransaction.LaunchActivityItem.execute(LaunchActivityItem.java:85) 
    at  android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.executeCallbacks(TransactionExecutor.java:135) 
    at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.execute(TransactionExecutor.java:95) 
    at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2066) 
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:106) 
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:223) 
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7656) 
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method) 
    at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:592) 
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:947) 
   I/Process: Sending signal. PID: 7655 SIG: 9

This is my main code:

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        final TextView text = findViewById(R.id.textView);
        Button  bat = findViewById(R.id.hello);
        bat.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                text.setText("Hello");
            }
        });

        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    }
}

Answer 1

You should call super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) and setContentView(R.layout.activity_main) before initialising button and click listener.

Make the code as follows:

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    final TextView text = findViewById(R.id.textView);
    Button  bat =findViewById(R.id.hello);

    bat.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {

    @Override
    public void onClick(View v) {
        text.setText("Hello");
    }});
}