title: What does null pointer exception mean in error messages?
body: <p>There are many articles asking to help with their code but not many actually answer what this means. Java doesn't use pointers on the user side but I get a null pointer exception error in my Java code sometimes and it made me wonder.. Does Java use pointers behind the scenes?</p>
  
  <p>Or is this just a term that is used to describe a definition error.</p>