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I have code establishing a server connection upon the event that a user clicks a specific button. I created an inner class to listen for the action. Within the single method I have in the inner class, I also establish that server connection mentioned earlier.

My question is, can the Socket connection only be utilized from within the "inner" class? Or, can the outer class proceed with communication with said server?

I do, however, understand that the inner class has unrestricted access to the outer class(as if it were the outer class. My question is the other way around.

sherrellbc
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    Yes, an instance of an outer class can call methods on an instance of an inner class. – Oliver Charlesworth Jun 05 '13 at 00:24
  • Yes, I misunderstood the question when I posted my answer. Of course you can do this. You can even [access private fields of the inner class from the outer class](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1801718/why-can-outer-java-classes-access-inner-class-private-members). – Zong Jun 05 '13 at 00:32
  • Side note: There is a brilliant chapter about nested classes in "effective java" by Joshua Bloch. – monika Jun 05 '13 at 00:44
  • The inner class method was of type private, so I was concerned. I see now. What the purpose of inner classes then if there is essentially unrestricted access both ways? – sherrellbc Jun 05 '13 at 00:48

3 Answers3

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Create an instance like this and access what you want:

OuterClass.InnerClass innerObject = outerObject.new InnerClass();
Juned Ahsan
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All methods declared on the inner class are accessible ... whether they are declared as public or ... private.

If the inner methods are static then they can always be called by code in the outer class. You just need to qualify the method name with the inner class name.

Otherwise, the outer class code needs a reference for an instance of the inner class to call methods on it. (But that's normal.)

(If you were asking about whether an inner class could call methods on the outer class, it is a bit more complicated. Most of the above applies, but if the inner class is NOT static it can also call instance methods on its outer class via this.)

Stephen C
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Yes ,you can achieve this look below sample code 

    currentDateMinutes=getDateAndTime();
    System.out.println("DATE & TIME:"+new JobSchedulerUtil().new TaskScheduler(currentDateMinutes).timeNow());

Above code JobSchedulerUtil class is an outer class with having getDateAndTime() method and an inner class TaskScheduler with timeNow() method.

mkumar0304
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