modifiers for top-level class?

[simeonshi]

en...
there will be at most one "public" class in a source file.
but could "protected","private" exist?
it is not mentioned in SL-275
could someone be kind enough to help me?
3x

[David Weitzman]

The best way to answer a question like this would be to write some code and try to compile it.

[Mathew Kuruvilla]

I need to know the answer to this one too. I mean, I can post code like this: b=0; --b-b--+b>>256, :-)
I need to know if normal classes cannot be protected and private while this is not true for inner classes. That is inner classes can be private or protected, but not synchronized or native.

[Valentin Crettaz]

simeonshi,
please read the Javaranch Naming Policy and register again.
Thank you for your cooperation.
------------------
Valentin Crettaz
Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Platform

[simeonshi]

thanx a lot for u

[David Weitzman]

Oh yeah, to find out how the java language works, RTFM: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/second_edition/html/classes.doc.html#21613

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

Originally posted by Mathew Kuruvilla:
I need to know the answer to this one too.

inner classes can be private or protected, but not synchronized or native.

<pre>
private Class Test
{
//
}</pre>

Does this compile?

[Mathew Kuruvilla]

OK, OK.
I compiled the following code successfully.

class Outer {  
 private class NestedA {    
  }
 protected class NestedB {    
  }
}

Ergo, inner classes can be private and protected.
I failed to compile the following:

private class privateClass {    }
protected class protectedClass {    }
class OuterA {  
 native private class NestedA {    
  }
}
class OuterB {  
 synchronized private class NestedA {    
  }
}

In each case I got the error:
Test.java: <line number> modifier <modifier> not allowed here ....
where modified was, depending on the class that was compiled, either private, protected, synchronized or native.

That's a lot of code that I compiled in recent days. :-)

[Vinny Chun]

Please correct me if I am wrong, if I have several classes in one java file, the access modifier of the first class must be declared as public. If I leave the first class as default and declare the second class as public, I have a compiler error.
class defaultClass { }
public class public Class { }
class OuterA { }
class OuterB { }
Why is that?

[Simeon Shi]

will it?
i tried ur code, it compiled fine except the runtime error coz the missing 'main' method.
plez attention ur 'public class publicClass'
~~~~no blank here

[Mathew Kuruvilla]

Well, the only that needs to be consistent is the NAME of the .java file and the PUBLIC CLASS in that file. You can define any number of class without being 'public' in a file having any name. If you never add a public class to that file, it will always compile. However, when you add that 'public' class, make sure that it matches the file name. The compiler looks at the name of the public class and the name of the file to determine if there is an error. I have seen a related question in the mock exam.