Java Rule Round-up Question 136

[Seraphin]

Hi, folks!
The following question is - in my humble opinion - not precise:
(#136)TRUE or FALSE: An
inner class has free access
to private member data of the
outer class.
Answer: TRUE
Given a static inner class X and a non-static private member data Y located in the outer class of X, X will not be able to access Y.
Therefore, question 136 should start with 'A non-static inner class has free access ...'.
Best regards,
Seraphin

[Dave Vick]

Seraphin
Actually, according to the
JLS Section 8.1.2a static nested class is not an inner class.

An inner class is a nested class that is not explicitly or implicitly declared static.

hope that helps

[Jim Yingst]

There is still a loophole here - technically if a local class is declared inside a static method, static initializer, or static variable initialization expression, it is considered an inner class declared in a non-static context. Such a class does not have access to an enclsing instance, since there is none - and thus no member variables of the enclosing class can be accessed. But modifying the question wording to account for this case just tends to confuse people more than it helps, as it's a rather obscure example.

[Rob Ross]

Originally posted by Jim Yingst:
...it is considered an inner class declared in a non-static context. Such a class does not have access to an enclsing instance, since there is none - and thus no member variables of the enclosing class can be accessed.

Did you mean ..."an inner class declared in a static context?"
Rob

[Jim Yingst]

Yeah, something like that.