Java catch being ignored

Question

I'm breaking my head with this:

protected void setParameters(HttpServletRequest request) {

    try {
        page = Integer.parseInt(request.getParameter("p"));
    }
    catch (NumberFormatException | NullPointerException e) {
        messages.add("Invalid page.");
    }

    try {
        status = Integer.parseInt(request.getParameter("s"));
    }
    catch (NumberFormatException | NullPointerException e) {
        messages.add("Invalid status.");
    }

}

Before I placed this method into a super class it was working as expected; but now when I have a query string without the p parameter (for example), the exception (NumberFormatException) is thrown (as expected), then caught by the first catch (as expected) and then rethrown and caught by the calling function (this is not expected). Since the exception was already caught here, the execution should just continue.

I'm attaching a screenshot where you can see:

• in pink: my breakpoint
• in green: my current execution line
• as a balloon: the current type of the exception which clearly says it is a NumberFormatException

Any ideas are very appreciated

Update:

Thank you, this is my calling stack: Servlet > UserListHandler > setParameters

UserListHandler() is a contructor and looks like this:

Servlet looks like this:

I find interesting that the exception the servlet is catching is a NullPointerException.

The top of my stack trace looks like this:

Mar 31, 2014 5:13:06 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve invoke
SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet [UserListServlet] in context with path [/App.Web] threw exception [java.lang.NullPointerException] with root cause
java.lang.NullPointerException

Answer 1

It is clear that there is another exception.

Maybe "messages", inside the catch is null and it is throwing a new NullPointerException?