Referencing Inner Class Methods or Variables

[Thomas Markl]

Referencing Inner Class Methods or Variables
============================================
An method/variable of the instance inner class can only be invoked by a reference to the outer instance e. g.
Inner in1 = new Outer().new Inner();
There are two ways of referencing an inner class method/variable as I stated in the coding you can see down
there. Which way is the best to reference the inner class variable y?

class A {
 int i;
 A(int i) {
  this.i=i;
 }
 
 class InnerA {
  protected int y;
  InnerA(int y) {
  this.y=y;
  }
 }
}
public class ATest1 {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
    int ai  = new A(5).i;
    int a1y = new A(5).new InnerA(8).y;  //Simple way of referencing variable/method of inner class
    System.out.println("Outer Class Instance Variable i: "+ai+" InnerClass InstanceVariable y: "+a1y);
    }
}

class A {
 int i;
 A(int i) {
  this.i=i;
 }
 InnerA createInnerA(int y) { 
   return new InnerA(y);
 }
 
 class InnerA {
  protected int y;
  InnerA(int y) {
  this.y=y;
  }
 }
}
public class ATest1a {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
    int ai  = new A(5).i;
//    int a1y = new A(5).new InnerA(8).y;
    int a1y = new A(5).createInnerA(8).y; //more sophisticated method of referencing inner class
    System.out.println("Outer Class Instance Variable i: "+ai+" InnerClass InstanceVariable y: "+a1y);
    }
}

[Ron Newman]

These two code samples are entirely equivalent.

[Thomas Markl]

Hello,
I know that the functionality is entirely equivalent, but the coding to archieve this differs. So when apply simple method and when apply complex method?
Thomas

[Ron Newman]

The code doesn't really differ. If you have a method that does nothing but invoke a constructor, you can just as well omit the method and call the constructor directly.