title: NP: Possible null pointer dereference (NP_NULL_ON_SOME_PATH)
body: <p>I am getting a "Possible null pointer dereference of dssResponseStatus" in the following code when a not null check is performed. Initially dssResponseStatus is assigned a null value but it has been used to get the status from a different method.<br>
      How do I go about resolving this issue. Help guys  </p>
  
  <pre><code>    DSSAdminResponseBean createIdAdminBean = new DSSAdminResponseBean();
          String dssResponseStatus = null;
  
          // To overcome cupcake overriding
          userCupcakeValue = (String) request.getSession().getAttribute(
                  DSSAdminGuiConstants.USERCUPCAKE);
          DSSADMINLogger.log(
                  DEBUG,
                  "userCupcakeValue :"
                  + MaskingSecuredData
                  .maskingSecuredData(userCupcakeValue));
  
          ArrayList createIdList = createIdService.getCreateIdManager(
                  createIdBean, userCupcakeValue);
          dssResponseStatus = DSSCheckResponseStatus.toCheckResponseStatus(
                  createIdAdminBean, createIdList);
  
          DSSADMINLogger.log(DEBUG, "dssResponseStatus :" + dssResponseStatus);
          performAudit(request, createIdBean, dssResponseStatus);
          // When the dssResponseStatus gets the error value as connectionError,
          // then it will be forward to error Page
  
  //getting the error in this line        if (dssResponseStatus != null
                  &amp;&amp; !dssResponseStatus
                  .equals(DSSAdminGuiConstants.DSS_SUCCESS_STATUS)
                  &amp;&amp; !dssResponseStatus
                  .equalsIgnoreCase(DSSAdminGuiConstants.CONNECTION_ERROR)) {
              String message = ErrorMessages.errorCodes(dssResponseStatus,
                      DSSAdminGuiConstants.CREATEID);
              DSSADMINLogger.log(ERROR,
                      "DSSResponseServer ErrorStatus for CreateId API :"
                      + message);
              return new ModelAndView(DSSAdminGuiConstants.DSSADMINCREATEID,
                      DSSAdminGuiConstants.RESPONSE_ERROR, message);
          } else if (dssResponseStatus
                  .equalsIgnoreCase(DSSAdminGuiConstants.CONNECTION_ERROR)) {
              DSSADMINLogger.log(ERROR, "DSSResponseSerever ErrorStatus :"
                      + dssResponseStatus);
              return new ModelAndView(DSSAdminGuiConstants.DSSADMINERRORMESSAGE,
                      DSSAdminGuiConstants.ERROR_STATUS, 2);
          } else {
              DSSADMINLogger.log(INFO, "Leaving getCreateIdResponse Method");
              return new ModelAndView(DSSAdminGuiConstants.DSSADMINGETID,
                      DSSAdminGuiConstants.CREATEID_ATTRIBUTES, createIdList);
  
          }
  
  
  }
  </code></pre>