title: How do I initialise a static List<T>?
body: <p>I can't seem to understand what is going wrong in this declaration</p>
  
  <pre><code>public static List&lt;Vertex&gt; vertices; 
  
  // where Vertex is a class with a default constructor 
  
  public static void main ( String [] arg ) throws IOException {
  vertices = new List&lt;Vertex&gt;(); // eclipse complains
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Where and how should i initialize this list.....
  Due to this when I go on to add in the list it complains of null pointer exception..... Can anybody tell me what am i doing wrong....</p>