morse code

[daz]

I have to make a morse code decoder using trees. Here is what i have so far with two classes... however, i am getting a null pointer and i cant figure out why...

import java.util.Map.Entry;
import java.util.Collection;
 
 
public class MorseTree<E> {
	public Entry root = null;
 
 
	private class Entry {
		private E value;
		private Entry leftChild;
		private Entry rightChild;
 
		public Entry(E value, Entry leftChild, Entry rightChild){
			this.value = value;
			this.leftChild = leftChild;
			this.rightChild = rightChild;
		}
		public Entry(E value){
			leftChild = null;
			rightChild = null;
		}
	}
 
	public MorseTree(){
		root = new Entry(null);
	}
 
	public void add(E key, String code){
		Entry start = root;
		for(int i = 0; i< code.length(); i ++){
			if(code.charAt(i) == '.'){
				if(i<code.length()-1 && !start.leftChild.equals(null)){
					start = start.leftChild;
				}
				else if(i<code.length()-1 && start.leftChild.equals(null)){
					start= start.leftChild;
					start = new Entry(null, start.leftChild, start.rightChild);
				}
				else if(i==code.length()-1){
					start.leftChild = new Entry(key, start.leftChild.leftChild, start.rightChild.rightChild);						
				}
			}
			else if(code.charAt(i) == '-'){
 
				if(i<code.length()-1 && !start.rightChild.equals(null)){
					start = start.rightChild;
				}
				else if(i<code.length()-1 && start.rightChild.equals(null)){
					start= start.rightChild;
					start = new Entry(null, start.leftChild, start.rightChild);
				}
				else if(i==code.length()-1){
					start.rightChild = new Entry(key, start.leftChild.leftChild, start.rightChild.rightChild);						
				}
			}
		}
	}
 
 
	public E decode(String code){
		Entry start = null;
		E symbol = null;
		for(int i = 0; i < code.length(); i ++){
			if(code.charAt(i) == '.'){
				if(i<code.length()-1 && !start.leftChild.equals(null)){
					start = start.leftChild;
				}
				else if(i<code.length()-1 && start.leftChild.equals(null)){
					System.out.println("This code does not match any morse code in the tree.");
				}
				else if(i== code.length()-1 && !start.leftChild.equals(null)){
					symbol = start.leftChild.value;
				}
				else if(i== code.length()-1 && start.leftChild.equals(null)){
					System.out.println("This code does not match any morse code in the tree.");
					symbol = (E) "";
				}
			}
			else if(code.charAt(i) == '-'){
				if(i<code.length()-1 && !start.rightChild.equals(null)){
					start = start.rightChild;
				}
				else if(i<code.length()-1 && start.rightChild.equals(null)){
					System.out.println("This code does not match any morse code in the tree.");
				}
				else if(i== code.length()-1 && !start.rightChild.equals(null)){
					symbol = start.rightChild.value;
				}
				else if(i== code.length()-1 && start.rightChild.equals(null)){
					System.out.println("This code does not match any morse code in the tree.");
					symbol = (E) "";
				}
			}else if(code.charAt(i) == '|'){
				symbol = (E) " ";
			}
			else{
				System.out.println("Warning: skipping: " + code.charAt(i));
				symbol = (E) " ";
			}
		}return symbol;
	}
}

Second Class:

import java.io.BufferedWriter;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Scanner;
 
public class MorseDecoder {
	public static MorseTree<String> tree = null; 
 
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		tree = new MorseTree<String>();
		String[] codeLine = null;
 
		Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);
		System.out.println("Enter an input file name: ");
		String inFile = in.nextLine();
		System.out.println("Enter a output file name: ");
		String outFile = in.nextLine();
		FileInputStream fis1 = null;
 
		File file = new File("morsecode.txt");
 
 
		try{
			fis1 = new FileInputStream(inFile);
		}catch(FileNotFoundException e){
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
		loadTree(file);
		try{
			BufferedWriter decodeFile = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(outFile));
			Scanner in1 = new Scanner(fis1);
			while(in1.hasNextLine()){
				String fileLine = in1.nextLine();
				codeLine = fileLine.split(" | " );
				for(int i = 0; i < codeLine.length; i ++){
					decodeFile.write(tree.decode(codeLine[i]));
				}
			}
			decodeFile.close();
			fis1.close();
		}catch(IOException e){
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
	public static void loadTree(File file){
		Scanner in = null;
		FileInputStream fis = null;
		try{
			fis = new FileInputStream(file);
		}catch(FileNotFoundException e){
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
		in = new Scanner(fis);
 
		while(in.hasNextLine()){
			String[] list = in.nextLine().split("	");//splits the two pieces of information
			char letter = list[0].charAt(0);//letter
			String letter1 = Character.toString(letter);
			String code = list[1];//morse code
			tree.add(letter1, code);
			try{
				fis.close();
			}catch(IOException e){
				e.printStackTrace();
			}
		}
	}
}

[Norm]

i am getting a null pointer

Please post the full text of the error message.
Look at the source line referenced in the error message and find the variable with the null value. Then back track in the code to find out why that variable does not have a valid non-null value.