Accessing the new method in the anonymous inner class

[indra negi]

If we create a new method in an anonymous inner class then how will we invoke that method as we can't use the instance of the super class.

Please explain with an example.

[Ninad Kulkarni]

Hi, Indra

See the following code

public class AnnonymousAccess {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		AnnonymousAccess annonymous =  new AnnonymousAccess() {
			void doIt() {
				System.out.println("Annonymous");
			}
		};
		annonymous.doIt();
	}
	void doIt() {
	}
}

Output is : Annonymous

But here method doIt() overrided in annonymous sub class of AnnonymousAccess class.
At line number 8 we used reference of super class to access the overrided method of annonymous inner class.

Let see what other say about your query.

[Henry Wong]

indra negi wrote:
If we create a new method in an anonymous inner class then how will we invoke that method as we can't use the instance of the super class.

Please explain with an example.

If you can't use the super class (or an interface) to call the method, then your only option is to use reflection, as the definition of the anonymous class will be out of scope.

Here's a quick modification of the previous example, that uses refection instead...

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {   
    AnonymousAccess anonymous =  new AnonymousAccess() {   
        public void doIt() {   
            System.out.println("Anonymous");   
        }   
    };
    Class<?> cls = anonymous.getClass();
    Method mthd = cls.getMethod("doIt", new Class[0]);
    mthd.invoke(anonymous, new Object[0]);
}   

Henry

[Ninad Kulkarni]

Thanks Henry

The complete code is given below so other can run the program.

import java.lang.reflect.*;
public class AnnonymousAccess1 {
	public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
		AnnonymousAccess1 anonymous =  new AnnonymousAccess1() {
			public void doIt() {
				System.out.println("Anonymous");
			}
		};
		Class<?> cls = anonymous.getClass();
		Method mthd = cls.getMethod("doIt", new Class[0]);
		mthd.invoke(anonymous, new Object[0]);
	}
}

[Ankit Garg]

Anyone pursuing SCJP can relax as Reflection is not on the SCJP objectives