String replaceall not working with string "[TEST]"

i am making a chat plugin that adds different channels. to set how you want the message formatted you use things in strings like [NAME] or [FACTION] although when i try to replace it i get this error.

Code:

[SEVERE] Could not pass event AsyncPlayerChatEvent to LGChat v0.1
org.bukkit.event.EventException
>      at org.bukkit.plugin.java.JavaPluginLoader$1.execute(JavaPluginLoader.java:427)
>      at org.bukkit.plugin.RegisteredListener.callEvent(RegisteredListener.java:62)
>      at org.bukkit.plugin.TimedRegisteredListener.callEvent(TimedRegisteredListener.java:30)
>      at org.bukkit.plugin.SimplePluginManager.fireEvent(SimplePluginManager.java:478)
>      at org.bukkit.plugin.SimplePluginManager.callEvent(SimplePluginManager.java:460)
>      at net.minecraft.server.v1_6_R1.PlayerConnection.chat(PlayerConnection.java:916)
>      at net.minecraft.server.v1_6_R1.PlayerConnection.a(PlayerConnection.java:858)
>      at net.minecraft.server.v1_6_R1.Packet3Chat.handle(SourceFile:49)
>      at org.spigotmc.netty.NettyNetworkManager$2.run(NettyNetworkManager.java:134)
>      at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:471)
>      at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:334)
>      at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:166)
>      at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
>      at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
>      at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
>      at java.util.regex.Matcher.appendReplacement(Matcher.java:758)
>      at java.util.regex.Matcher.replaceAll(Matcher.java:906)
>      at java.lang.String.replaceAll(String.java:2162)
>      at me.sothatsit.lgchat.config.Channel.sendMessage(Channel.java:67)
>      at me.sothatsit.lgchat.config.Channel.sendMessage(Channel.java:61)
>      at me.sothatsit.lgchat.LGChat.onPlayerChat(LGChat.java:131)
>      at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
>      at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
>      at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
>      at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)
>      at org.bukkit.plugin.java.JavaPluginLoader$1.execute(JavaPluginLoader.java:425)

the error occurs at this line:

Code:

message = message.replaceAll("[MESSAGE]", rawmessage);

 

well it looks as if rawmessage is possibly null?

 

if this is true "e.getMessage()" is returning null where e is the AsyncPlayerChatEvent method

 

try doing a printline of e.getMessage() to check

 

nope, its not null

 

SoThatsIt

message is null.

 

i tested both message and rawmessage and neither are null.

 

[ and ] are metacharacters in regular expressions, try

Code:

this message = message.replaceAll("\[MESSAGE\]", rawmessage);[/code
EDIT: although im not sure how that would cause an NPE

 

when i do this it gives me an error in eclipse. i have tried \\ the brackets, did not work still got error, i tried putting ^ as the first character in the brackets, i tried \\ all the characters didnt work.

 

Can you explain why you even need to replace these?

 

why not just use % signs like every other plugin?

 

You should probably use .replace() rather than .replaceAll(), since you don't need regular expressions.