naming : package, inner classes

[See El]

Hi everybody,
I've got an question regarding the following code :

package Class1;
class i {
i() {
System.out.println("outer");
}
}
public class Class1 {

static class i {
public i() {
System.out.println("inner");
}
};

public static void main(String[] args) {
i i1 = new i();
Class1.i i2 = new Class1.i();
}
}

The question is what does it print out ?
.....
The answer is :
inner
inner
Now the next question is how to declare & create the ("outer") "i" class within class Class1 ?
Thanx in advace,

[smita raval]

It's really an intelligent question. From where did you get it ?
(Anyway, still I couldn't find the way to declare and use outer i in class Class1.) :roll:

[Valentin Crettaz]

From JLS 6.3.1 Shadowing Declarations

A declaration d of a type named n shadows the declarations of any other types named n that are in scope at the point where d occurs throughout the scope of d.

In clear, the declaration of the static class i in Class1 shadows the declaration of class i in package Class1.

[See El]

I'm preparing for SCJP and just made this up to test the package naming tricks.
The 2-nd question remains open ? Anynone ?
Is it possible or it is not ?

[Barkat Mardhani]

2nd Question:
I do not think you can do that unless you change the name of the outer class. Because you have same names, the inner static class shadows the outer i class.
Even if you change the name of the package to say p1 and execute following statement:
p1.i i2 = new p1.i();
it gives compiler error because you can not reference p1 from within p1.

[Valentin Crettaz]

From JLS 6.5.2 Reclassification of Contextually Ambiguous Names

If the AmbiguousName is a qualified name, consisting of a name, a ".", and an Identifier, then the name to the left of the "." is first reclassified, for it is itself an AmbiguousName.
There is then a choice:
If the name to the left of the "." is reclassified as a PackageName, then if there is a package whose name is the name to the left of the "." and that package contains a declaration of a type whose name is the same as the Identifier, then this AmbiguousName is reclassified as a TypeName. Otherwise, this AmbiguousName is reclassified as a PackageName. A later step determines whether or not a package of that name actually exists.

Package Class1 contains a type declaration called Class1 and Class1 is then reclassified as being the type name instead of the package name. There is no chance you can instantiate the top-level class i.

[Barkat Mardhani]

Posted by Valentin:

Package Class1 contains a type declaration called Class1 and Class1 is then reclassified as being the type name instead of the package name. There is no chance you can instantiate the top-level class i.

If package name is changed to p1, is there anyway an instance of top level class i can be created within main() of class1....
[ October 07, 2002: Message edited by: Barkat Mardhani ]
[ October 07, 2002: Message edited by: Barkat Mardhani ]
[ October 07, 2002: Message edited by: Barkat Mardhani ]

[Valentin Crettaz]

Yes, with
p1.i newobj = new p1.i()

[Barkat Mardhani]

Hi Valentin:
Following code does not compile:

package p1;
class i {
i() {
System.out.println("outer");
}
}
public class Class1 {
static class i {
public i() {
System.out.println("inner");
}
} 

public static void main(String[] args) {
i i1 = new i();
p1.i i2 = new p1.i();
}
}

Compiler cannot resolve p1.i and p1.i()

[Valentin Crettaz]

It compiles fine on my machine... Are you sure you have the code in a file called Class1.java in a directory called p1?

[Barkat Mardhani]

Yes.
I am runing 1.3 ver of JDK on windows 98.

[Valentin Crettaz]

Here is my code:

//File Class1.java in directory p1
package p1;
class i {
    i() {
        System.out.println("outer");
    }
}
public class Class1 {
    static class i {
        public i() {
            System.out.println("inner");
        }
    }
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        i i1 = new i();
        Class1.i i2 = new Class1.i();
        p1.i i3 = new p1.i();
    }
}

I'm in directory p1.
Compile with: javac Class1.java
Execute with: java -classpath .. p1.Class1
Output:
inner
inner
outer

[Barkat Mardhani]

Thanks Valentin for you help. After some play with the code, if I found that there some other files in p1 package with class i in them. That caused the grief. I created a brand new package and it worked fine....

[See El]

I got the answer for the other forum :

public static void main(String[] args) { 
    i i1 = new i(); 
    try {    
        Class.forName("Class1.i").newInstance(); 
    } catch (Exception e) {}
}

and it works !!!
Still don't know how to declare an object though.

[Valentin Crettaz]

Very interesting...
But the problem is now that newInstance() returns an Object that has to be cast to be correct type in order to be useful. I think there is no way to cast the created object to class i since either casting to i or Class1.i will resolve to the static class declared within the class Class1 and not to the top-level class i declared at the top of the compilation unit.