Why getContext() in fragment sometimes returns null?

Bek picture Bek · Dec 27, 2017 · Viewed 31.4k times · Source

Why getContext() sometimes returns null? I pass context to LastNewsRVAdapter.java as an argument. But LayoutInflater.from(context) sometimes crashes. I'm getting a few crash reports on play console. Below is crash report.

java.lang.NullPointerException
com.example.adapters.LastNewsRVAdapter.<init>

java.lang.NullPointerException: 
at android.view.LayoutInflater.from (LayoutInflater.java:211)
at com.example.adapters.LastNewsRVAdapter.<init> (LastNewsRVAdapter.java)
at com.example.fragments.MainFragment$2.onFailure (MainFragment.java)
or                     .onResponse (MainFragment.java)
at retrofit2.ExecutorCallAdapterFactory$ExecutorCallbackCall$1$1.run 
(ExecutorCallAdapterFactory.java)
at android.os.Handler.handleCallback (Handler.java:808)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage (Handler.java:103)
at android.os.Looper.loop (Looper.java:193)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main (ActivityThread.java:5299)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative (Method.java)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke (Method.java:515)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run 
(ZygoteInit.java:825)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main (ZygoteInit.java:641)
at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main (NativeStart.java)

This is LastNewsRVAdapter.java constructor.

public LastNewsRVAdapter(Context context, List<LatestNewsData> 
    latestNewsDataList, FirstPageSideBanner sideBanner) {
    this.context = context;
    this.latestNewsDataList = latestNewsDataList;
    inflater = LayoutInflater.from(context);
    this.sideBanner = sideBanner;
}

This is the code onCreateView inside Fragment

@Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
                         Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    // Inflate the layout for this fragment

    final View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_main_sonku_kabar, container, false);
    tvSonkuKabar = view.findViewById(R.id.textview_sonku_kabar_main);
    tvNegizgiKabar = view.findViewById(R.id.textview_negizgi_kabar_main);
    refresh(view);

    final SwipeRefreshLayout swipeRefreshLayout = (SwipeRefreshLayout) view.findViewById(R.id.mainRefreshSonkuKabar);
    swipeRefreshLayout.setOnRefreshListener(new SwipeRefreshLayout.OnRefreshListener() {
        @Override
        public void onRefresh() {
            refresh(view);
            swipeRefreshLayout.setRefreshing(false);
        }
    });
    setHasOptionsMenu(true);
    return view;
}

This is refresh method inside Fragment

private void refresh(final View view) {
    sideBanner = new FirstPageSideBanner();

    final RecyclerView rvLatestNews = (RecyclerView) view.findViewById(R.id.recViewLastNews);
    rvLatestNews.setLayoutManager(new LinearLayoutManager(getContext(), LinearLayoutManager.VERTICAL, false));
    rvLatestNews.setNestedScrollingEnabled(false);
    App.getApiService().getLatestNews().enqueue(new Callback<LatestNews>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(Call<LatestNews> call, Response<LatestNews> response) {
            if (response.isSuccessful() && response.body().isSuccessfull()){
                adapter = new LastNewsRVAdapter(getContext(), response.body().getData(), sideBanner);
                rvLatestNews.setAdapter(adapter);
                tvSonkuKabar.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
            }
        }

        @Override
        public void onFailure(Call<LatestNews> call, Throwable t) {

        }
    });

Answer

Pankaj Kumar picture Pankaj Kumar · Dec 27, 2017

As the accepted answer says, you must look into the way you are using and caching context. Somehow you are leaking context that is causing Null Pointer Exception.


Below Answer is as per the first revision of the question.

Use onAttach() to get Context. Most of the cases, you don't need this solution so use this solution only if any other solution does not work. And you may create a chance to activity leak, so be cleaver while using it. You may require to make context null again when you leave from fragment

// Declare Context variable at class level in Fragment
private Context mContext;

// Initialise it from onAttach()
@Override
public void onAttach(Context context) {
    super.onAttach(context);
    mContext = context;
}

This context will be available in onCreateView, so You should use it.


From Fragment Documentation

Caution: If you need a Context object within your Fragment, you can call getContext(). However, be careful to call getContext() only when the fragment is attached to an activity. When the fragment is not yet attached, or was detached during the end of its lifecycle, getContext() will return null.