Solved NPE when checking if a player is null?

I'm getting a NPE when I try to check if a player .equals null...

Here's the error:

Code:java

[19:58:02 ERROR]: Error occurred while disabling Wizards v0.0.1 (Is it up to date?)
java.lang.NullPointerException
>      at net.podzol.jojodmo.wizards.Common.getUUID(Common.java:10) ~[?:?]
>      at net.podzol.jojodmo.wizards.Common.getUUID(Common.java:23) ~[?:?]
>      at net.podzol.jojodmo.wizards.Main.onDisable(Main.java:234) ~[?:?]

and here's line 10 of Common.java:

Code:java

if(!player.equals(null)){

it's in this method:

Code:java

public static String getUUID(Player player){
        if(!player.equals(null)){
            return player.getUniqueId().toString();
        }
        return "null";
    }

What I'm trying to do is, I would like to get the UUID of a player, using the player's name, so for example, if "jojodmo" is put in (NOT CraftPlayer=jojodmo), I would like it to return my UUID... It get's UUID's fine, just when I try to get the UUID of a string, it doesn't work... I check if the player has played before here:

Code:java

public static String getUUID(String player){
        if(Bukkit.getServer().getOfflinePlayer(player).hasPlayedBefore()){

Any ideas? The thing that has me stumped is why I'm getting a NPE when I'm checking if a player.equals(null);

 

jojodmo2010 Change it to:
if(player != null)){

If you try to call a method on a variable that is null it will throw a NPE. So checking if the variable is null by using a method is not a good idea.

 

Wow... That would explain a lot... Thanks

 

To further Mmarz11 explanation. null is a literal so you can use standard operators. You use .equals() on Objects and operators on literals and primitives.