java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'android.view.View android.view.View.findViewById(int)' on a null object reference
<p>I have a <code>BlankFragment</code></p>

<pre><code>package com.hfad.addingafragmenttoframelayout;


import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.app.Fragment;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.TextView;

import org.w3c.dom.Text;


/**
 * A simple {@link Fragment} subclass.
 */
public class BlankFragment extends Fragment {


    public BlankFragment() {
        // Required empty public constructor
    }


    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
                             Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        Log.d("message","onCreateView() of BlankFragment");
        // Inflate the layout for this fragment
        return inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_blank, container, false);
    }

    public void setText(String textToBeSet){
        TextView tv = (TextView)this.getView().findViewById(R.id.fragmentText);
        tv.setText(textToBeSet);
    }

}
</code></pre>

<p>and it's layout is:</p>

<pre><code>&lt;FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context="com.hfad.addingafragmenttoframelayout.BlankFragment"&gt;

    &lt;!-- TODO: Update blank fragment layout --&gt;
    &lt;TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:text="@string/hello_blank_fragment"
        android:id="@+id/fragmentText"/&gt;

&lt;/FrameLayout&gt;
</code></pre>

<p>Here is the <code>MainActivity</code></p>

<pre><code>package com.hfad.addingafragmenttoframelayout;

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        //BlankFragment bf = new BlankFragment();
        //getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction().add(R.id.fragment_container, bf).commit();

        BlankFragment bf = new BlankFragment();
        bf.setText("hello world");
        getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction().add(R.id.fragment_container, bf).commit();


    }




}
</code></pre>

<p>and here is the layout of <code>MainActivity</code></p>

<pre><code>&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?&gt;
&lt;LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    tools:context="com.hfad.addingafragmenttoframelayout.MainActivity"
    android:orientation="vertical"&gt;

    &lt;FrameLayout
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/fragment_container"
        /&gt;


&lt;/LinearLayout&gt;
</code></pre>

<p>In the onCreate method of activity I am adding fragment to layout. This works fine unless I try to change the Text using setText method. </p>

<p>And I get this error:</p>

<pre><code>Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'android.view.View android.view.View.findViewById(int)' on a null object reference
                                                                                           at com.hfad.addingafragmenttoframelayout.BlankFragment.setText(BlankFragment.java:35)
                                                                                           at com.hfad.addingafragmenttoframelayout.MainActivity.onStart(MainActivity.java:29)
</code></pre>

<p>referring to this line</p>

<pre><code>TextView tv = (TextView)this.getView().findViewById(R.id.fragmentText);
</code></pre>

<p>Can somebody explain what's causing this exception?</p>