NullPointerException in a JTextField.getText() inside a actionPerformed event

Question

I'm having a NullPointerException in a JTextField.getText() inside a actionPerformed event:

import javax.swing.*;

public class myForm extends JInternalFrame
{
    private JTextField txtName;
    private String name;

    public myForm()
    {
        super("My Form", true, true, true, true);

        txtName = new JTextField();

        JButton button = new JButton("button");

        button.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
        {
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
            {
                name = txtName.getText(); // here is the NullPointerException 
            }
        }
    }
}

Here is the stack trace:

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException
    at ContatoFormulario$1.actionPerformed(ContatoFormulario.java:80)
    at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:1995)
    at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2318)
    at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(DefaultButtonModel.java:387)
    at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(DefaultButtonModel.java:242)
    at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicButtonListener.mouseReleased(BasicButtonListener.java:236)
    at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Component.java:6216)
    at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(JComponent.java:3265)
    at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Component.java:5981)
    at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Container.java:2041)
    at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4583)
    at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2099)
    at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4413)
    at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Container.java:4556)
    at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Container.java:4220)
    at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Container.java:4150)
    at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2085)
    at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Window.java:2475)
    at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4413)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:599)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:269)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:184)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:174)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:169)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:161)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:122)

Anyone has a idea? I already try to search over the web and don't find any solution.

This problem occurs with more frequency when we re-instanciate the JTextField like this:

public class myForm extends JInternalFrame
{
    private JTextField txtName;

    public myForm()
    {
        JTextField txtName = new JTextField();        
    }
 }

But this is not the case, any idea?

Answer 1

The first piece of code shouldn't. Have you removed something, or got confused what you have compiled?

The second piece of code has the local variable hiding the field.