Getting and NullPointerException while accessing to a session attribute

Question

I am trying to access to a session attribute from a Filter in my webapp running on Tomcat:

boolean socialLogin = (Boolean) session.getAttribute("socialLogin");

I'm getting a NullPointerException, how can I handle the situation of if the attribute exists or not without having to catch a NPE?

The sessión is not null, I have checked it before.

@Rafa, that NPE has to be coming from somewhere else. Per the [Java Servlet API](http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/servletapi/javax/servlet/http/HttpSession.html#getAttribute(java.lang.String), `getAttribute` will return NULL if no value is bound to the provided key, but it will never throw a NullPointerException itself. — sherb, Jul 17 '14 at 00:13

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 16 '14 at 13:36

2

Have you tried to check for a null value?

if(session.getAttribute("socialLogin") != null) {
   boolean socialLogin = (Boolean) session.getAttribute("socialLogin");
}

answered Jul 16 '14 at 13:36

Stefan

1 Answers1