Java SE (Java Platform, Standard Edition)

Hi,

Well, I'm using JRadioButton for the first time. So far, I haven't had much luck. I'm trying to check whether one of the radio buttons I have in a ButtonGroup are selected. I have one of the two radiobuttons selected from the get-go.

The following class is an inner-class. There error is caused when I call before.isSelected() in the getSelection() function.

	private class radioButtonClass extends JPanel
	{
		private JRadioButton after;
		private JRadioButton before;
		private ButtonGroup group;

		public radioButtonClass()
		{

			JRadioButton before = new JRadioButton("Before the current row?", true);
			//before.setSelected( true );
			JRadioButton after = new JRadioButton("After the current row?  ");

			group = new ButtonGroup();
	    	        group.add( before );
	    	        group.add( after );

			this.add( before );
			this.add( after );
			//this.add( group );
			
			//setBackground( new Color(234, 2, 43) );
		}

		public Dimension getPreferredSize()
		{
			return new Dimension( 150, 80 );
		}

		public Dimension getMaximumSize()
		{
	    	return getPreferredSize();
	    }
	    
	    public int getSelection()
	    {
	    	//System.out.println("getSelection()");
	    	//System.out.println("Button Count: " + group.getButtonCount() );
	    	
	    	//System.out.println("isSelected" + group.isSelected( after.getModel() ) + "... yup!");
	    	

                //java.lang.NullPointerException is raised/thrown in this function below.
	    	if( before.isSelected() )
	    	{
	 			System.out.println("1");
	    		return 1;
	    	}
	    		
	    	else
	    	{
	    		
	    		System.out.println("2");
	    		 return 2;
	    	}
	    	
	    }

	}

I'm guessing this is a really easy error, yet I have been unable to find the cause. Any help would be much appreciated.