Selenium NullPointerException while trying to find WebElement - selenium

Question

While trying to execute below method, I receive NullPointerException:
#Test
public static void test1() {
System.out.print("\nTo find UserName element");
WebElement element =driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[#name='email']"));
WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id("email"));
element.sendKeys("abhinav_shankar");
System.out.print("\nElement found");
System.out.print("\njunittest2 class-test1 executed before sleep");
Thread.sleep(15000);
System.out.print("\njunittest2 class-test1 executed after sleep");
}
Below excpetion is caught at line "WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id("email"));"
Thread [main] (Suspended (exception NullPointerException))
Mytestclass.test1() line: 44
Mytestclass.main(String[]) line: 21
I tried using xpath as written in above code but it also gives same error.
EDIT:
#BeforeClass
public static void openbrowser() {
FirefoxProfile profile = new FirefoxProfile();
System.out.print("\nBrowser open");
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(profile);
driver.manage().window().maximize();
driver.get("website-url");
}

Answer 1

You seem to have declared driver twice. One in the class level & one in openbrowser method.
You initialize only the openbrowser driver. The class level driver is still null. So, test1 method throws null pointer exception.
So, remove the driver re-declaration in the openbrowser method. Just this will do and it should work.
driver = new FirefoxDriver(profile);

Answer 2

Issue :
Your Webdriver objects seems to be declared inside a function openbrowser() because of which driver object scope is only with that function. So the NullpointerException could be due to driver.
Solution :
Declare the Webdriver globally and initialize within the openbrowser method so that you can use it in test1() or any other methods also.
public WebDriver driver;
#BeforeClass
public static void openbrowser() {
//Driver initialization
}
#Test
public static void test1() {
//Use the driver here
}