[servlets] java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot (forward | sendRedirect | create session) after response has been committed

This method throws

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot forward after response has been committed

and I am unable to spot the problem. Any help?

    int noOfRows = Integer.parseInt(request.getParameter("noOfRows"));
    String chkboxVal = "";
    // String FormatId=null;
    Vector vRow = new Vector();
    Vector vRow1 = new Vector();
    String GroupId = "";
    String GroupDesc = "";
    for (int i = 0; i < noOfRows; i++) {
        if ((request.getParameter("chk_select" + i)) == null) {
            chkboxVal = "notticked";
        } else {
            chkboxVal = request.getParameter("chk_select" + i);
            if (chkboxVal.equals("ticked")) {
                fwdurl = "true";
                Statement st1 = con.createStatement();
                GroupId = request.getParameter("GroupId" + i);
                GroupDesc = request.getParameter("GroupDesc" + i);
                ResultSet rs1 = st1
                        .executeQuery("select FileId,Description from cs2k_Files "
                                + " where FileId like 'M%' and co_code = "
                                + ccode);
                ResultSetMetaData rsm = rs1.getMetaData();
                int cCount = rsm.getColumnCount();

                while (rs1.next()) {
                    Vector vCol1 = new Vector();
                    for (int j = 1; j <= cCount; j++) {
                        vCol1.addElement(rs1.getObject(j));
                    }
                    vRow.addElement(vCol1);
                }
                rs1 = st1
                        .executeQuery("select FileId,NotAllowed from cs2kGroupSub "
                                + " where FileId like 'M%' and GroupId = '"
                                + GroupId + "'" + " and co_code = " + ccode);
                rsm = rs1.getMetaData();
                cCount = rsm.getColumnCount();

                while (rs1.next()) {
                    Vector vCol2 = new Vector();
                    for (int j = 1; j <= cCount; j++) {
                        vCol2.addElement(rs1.getObject(j));
                    }
                    vRow1.addElement(vCol2);
                }

                // throw new Exception("test");

                break;
            }
        }
    }
    if (fwdurl.equals("true")) {
        // throw new Exception("test");
        // response.sendRedirect("cs2k_GroupCopiedUpdt.jsp") ;
        request.setAttribute("GroupId", GroupId);
        request.setAttribute("GroupDesc", GroupDesc);
        request.setAttribute("vRow", vRow);
        request.setAttribute("vRow1", vRow1);
        getServletConfig().getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher(
                "/GroupCopiedUpdt.jsp").forward(request, response);
    }

You should add return statement while you are forwarding or redirecting the flow.

Example:

if forwardind,

    request.getRequestDispatcher("/abs.jsp").forward(request, response);
    return;

if redirecting,

    response.sendRedirect(roundTripURI);
    return;

Bump...

I just had the same error. I noticed that I was invoking super.doPost(request, response); when overriding the doPost() method as well as explicitly invoking the superclass constructor

    public ScheduleServlet() {
        super();
        // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
    }

As soon as I commented out the super.doPost(request, response); from within doPost() statement it worked perfectly...

protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {

        //super.doPost(request, response);
        // More code here...

}

Needless to say, I need to re-read on super() best practices :p

Typically you see this error after you have already done a redirect and then try to output some more data to the output stream. In the cases where I have seen this in the past, it is often one of the filters that is trying to redirect the page, and then still forwards through to the servlet. I cannot see anything immediately wrong with the servlet, so you might want to try having a look at any filters that you have in place as well.

Edit: Some more help in diagnosing the problem…

The first step to diagnosing this problem is to ascertain exactly where the exception is being thrown. We are assuming that it is being thrown by the line

getServletConfig().getServletContext()
                  .getRequestDispatcher("/GroupCopiedUpdt.jsp")
                  .forward(request, response);

But you might find that it is being thrown later in the code, where you are trying to output to the output stream after you have tried to do the forward. If it is coming from the above line, then it means that somewhere before this line you have either:

1. output data to the output stream, or
2. done another redirect beforehand.

Good luck!

After return forward method you can simply do this:

return null;

It will break the current scope.

even adding a return statement brings up this exception, for which only solution is this code:

if(!response.isCommitted())
// Place another redirection

I removed

        super.service(req, res);

Then it worked fine for me

This is because your servlet is trying to access a request object which is no more exist.. A servlet's forward or include statement does not stop execution of method block. It continues to the end of method block or first return statement just like any other java method.

The best way to resolve this problem just set the page (where you suppose to forward the request) dynamically according your logic. That is:

protected void doPost(request , response){
String returnPage="default.jsp";
if(condition1){
 returnPage="page1.jsp";
}
if(condition2){
   returnPage="page2.jsp";
}
request.getRequestDispatcher(returnPage).forward(request,response); //at last line
}

and do the forward only once at last line...

you can also fix this problem using return statement after each forward() or put each forward() in if...else block