ResultSet next() throws Null Pointer Exception - Mailing list pgsql-general

Hello. Any help would be gratefully appricated.

I'm using Postgres 7.1.3.  I have small test class. I have put a
comment line where this class fails.

import java.sql.*;

class DBTest {

    static {
        try {
            Class.forName("org.postgresql.Driver");
        }
        catch (Exception e) {
            System.err.println("Terminated.  Could not load postgres
driver :" + e);
            System.exit(1);
        }
    }

    private static Connection conn;
    private static Statement stmt;
    private static ResultSet rs;
    private static String sql = "SELECT * FROM message";



    public static void main(String[] args) {
        if(args.length < 1) {
            System.out.println("Usage: DBTest <database> [<sql
statement>]");
            System.exit(1);
        }
        if(args.length == 2)
            sql = args[1];

        try {
            conn = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:postgresql:"+
args[0],"user","");
            stmt = conn.createStatement();
        }
        catch (SQLException sqle) {
            System.err.println("Terminated. Could not create
connection or statement :" + sqle);
            System.exit(1);
        }
        catch(Exception e) {
            System.err.println("Terminated. Could not create
connection or statement :" + e);
            System.exit(1);
        }
        try {
            rs = stmt.executeQuery(sql);
        }
        catch (SQLException sqle) {
            System.err.println("Terminated. Exception occured during
query execution (" + sql +") :" + sqle);
        }
        finally {
            try {
                rs.close();
                stmt.close();
                conn.close();
            }
            catch (Exception e) {
                System.exit(-1);
            }
        }
        try {
            ResultSetMetaData meta = rs.getMetaData();
            System.out.println("Number of column :" +
meta.getColumnCount());

            if(rs.next()) { //THIS IS THE FAILURE LINE.  EXCEPTION
THROWN IS NULL POINTER
                System.out.println(rs.getString(1));
            }
            /*
            while(rs.next()) {
                System.out.println(rs.getString(1) + "  " +
rs.getString(2) + "  " + rs.getString(3));
            }
            */
            System.out.println("Ended without error");
        }
        catch (SQLException sqle) {
            System.err.println("Terminated. SQLException occured
during resultSet display :" + sqle);
            sqle.printStackTrace();
        }
        catch(Exception e) {
            System.err.println("Terminated. Exception occured during
resultSet display :" + e);
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        finally {
            try {
                rs.close();
                stmt.close();
                conn.close();
            }
            catch (Exception e) {
                System.exit(-1);
            }
        }
    }
}

When this class is run, this is the output.

Number of column :6
Terminated. Exception occured during resultSet display
:java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
        at org.postgresql.jdbc2.ResultSet.next(Unknown Source)
        at com.ecmarket.util.database.test.DBTest.main(Unknown Source)

What I know. The statement does return a ResultSet. The ResultSet is
not null when the rs.next() line is called.

Can YOU see what I've missed or got wrong. Or maybe there is a bug in
the driver itself and you know the fix or workaround.

Thanks