iFeature.getValue - null pointer - Java

LeoDonahue

ArcGIS Server 9.3.1

I have a featureCursor that contains the result of a spatial query.  There is one record returned from the spatial query.

Some of the field values in my record have no values, which I guess are null values?  Everytime I run this program, I get a null pointer exception, whenever the loop encounters a field value that is null.

I've tried assinging the result of iFeature.getValue(int) to a temp Object, then testing whether that temp Object==null.  If it is null, then don't assign this value to a Bean property.

This works on most of the fields, except some.  I looked up the Java Docs for IField to see what type of field value I should have from the SDE featureclass.
http://resources.esri.com/help/9.3/arcgisserver/adf/java/help/api/arcobjects/com/esri/arcgis/geodatabase/IField.html#getType()

Should I get the value of the field using either of the following?

iFeature.getFields().getField(int).getDefaultValue();
or
iFeature.getValue(int).toString();

featureCursor = featureClass.search(spatFilter, true);
...
iFeature = featureCursor.nextFeature();

if iFeature is not null
  loop through the number of features
    loop through the number of fields
      get the value of each field using the index - this is where I have a problem
      iFeature.getValue(int).toString();

LeoDonahue

This last post is mostly informational.  Thanks to Kirk, for helping me realize the solution.

The issue at hand is having a value of <null> in a field's value and needing to assign that field value to a variable of the field's datatype.  My null pointer was ocurring when trying to assign a <null> to a Long Integer, String, etc. variable.

I tested for field value and the field varType, then assigned the appropriate value (for my situation) to the variable.

if(iFeature != null){
    for(int i = 0; i < recordCount; i++){
        for(int j = 0; j < fieldCount; j++){
            tempValue = iFeature.getValue(j);
            tempVarType = iFeature.getFields().getField(j).getVarType();

            // check field valueType for Long Integer (3), Double (5), or String (8)
            // and convert <null> data to appropriate data type value
            if((tempValue==null)&&(tempVarType==3)){
                recordsetfields = "0";
            } else if((tempValue==null)&&(tempVarType==5)){
                recordsetfields = "0.0";
            } else if((tempValue==null)&&(tempVarType==8)){
                recordsetfields = "";
            } else {
                recordsetfields = iFeature.getValue(j).toString();
            }
        }
... etc