Another occurrence of a NullPointerException occurs when one declares an object array, then immediately tries to dereference elements inside of it.

String[] phrases = new String[10];
String keyPhrase = "Bird";
for(String phrase : phrases) {
    System.out.println(phrase.equals(keyPhrase));
}

^{This particular NPE can be avoided if the comparison order is reversed; namely, use .equals on a guaranteed non-null object.}

All elements inside of an array are initialized to their common initial value; for any type of object array, that means that all elements are null.

You must initialize the elements in the array before accessing or derefencing them.

String[] phrases = new String[] {"The bird", "A bird", "My bird", "Bird"};
String keyPhrase = "Bird";
for(String phrase : phrases) {
    System.out.println(phrase.equals(keyPhrase));
}

Another occurrence of a NullPointerException occurs when one declares an object array, then immediately tries to dereference elements inside of it.

String[] phrases = new String[10];
String keyPhrase = "Bird";
for(String phrase : phrases) {
    System.out.println(phrase.equals(keyPhrase));
}

^{This particular NPE can be avoided if the comparison order is reversed; namely, use .equals on a guaranteed non-null object.}

All elements inside of an array are initialized to their common initial value; for any type of object array, that means that all elements are null.

You must initialize the elements in the array before accessing or dereferencing them.

String[] phrases = new String[] {"The bird", "A bird", "My bird", "Bird"};
String keyPhrase = "Bird";
for(String phrase : phrases) {
    System.out.println(phrase.equals(keyPhrase));
}