java - XPath check for attribute and show the value -

i need check bunch of .xml files specific permission, attribute. if there such permission attribute have find out value attribute has.

this code produces nullpointerexceptions:

public static void checkxmlpermissions(string path)     {         fileinputstream file;         try                                                                                                          {             file = new fileinputstream(new file(path));              documentbuilderfactory builderfactory = documentbuilderfactory.newinstance();                                                                                                              //xpath initialisieren;             documentbuilder builder =  builderfactory.newdocumentbuilder();                                        document xmldocument = builder.parse(file);              xpath xpath =  xpathfactory.newinstance().newxpath();               string expression ="//*[@permission]";                                                                          //expression;             nodelist nodelist = (nodelist) xpath.compile(expression).evaluate(xmldocument, xpathconstants.nodeset);              (int = 0; < nodelist.getlength(); i++)              {                 string match = nodelist.item(i).getfirstchild().getnodevalue();                 system.out.println(match);              }         }         catch(exception ex)         {             system.out.println(ex);         }      } 

i guess mistake nodelist can´t find solution own.

change:

string match = nodelist.item(i).getfirstchild().getnodevalue(); 

to:

string match = nodelist.item(i).gettextcontent();