Anonymous Inner class method calls

[Natalie Ap]

  
public class TestClass {
	
	class Test  {
		void method() { // method 1
			System.out.println("In Test:method()");
			new Test () {
				void method () { // method 2
					System.out.println("In Anonymous class: method()");
				}
			}.method(); //method-call 1
		}
	}
	
		
                public static void main(String[] args) {
		TestClass tc = new TestClass();
		Test t = new TestClass().new Test();
		t.method();
		
	}
}

  

Hi all,

In order to understand method calls to an anonymous inner class, I wrote the above code. After running it, the following output is generated:

In Test:method()
In Anonymous class: method()

Then, I tried renaming 'method 2' from method() to methodX(). After that, I noticed that 'method 1' started getting called and the output was:
In Test:method()
In Test:method()
In Test:method() until a StackOverflow occured.

How does 'method-call 1' really work. Why doesn't a compiler error occur at the call stating that there is no such method defined in the anonymous class..

Thanks

[James Tharakan]

Because the reference type is Test, the compiler does not give error.
The compile know that, even if the anonymous class does not overide the method it can atleast call the Test class method.

[Punit Singh]

# new Test () {  
#                 void method () { // method 2  
#                     System.out.println("In Anonymous class: method()");  
#                 }  
#             }.method(); //method-call 1      

This is anonymous inner class, that is extending Test class, means it is subclass of Test class, so it inherits method() from Test class.

[Natalie Ap]

Punit Singh wrote:

# new Test () {  
#                 void method () { // method 2  
#                     System.out.println("In Anonymous class: method()");  
#                 }  
#             }.method(); //method-call 1      

This is anonymous inner class, that is extending Test class, means it is subclass of Test class, so it inherits method() from Test class.

Thanks..that explains..I do not like this topic of anonymous inner classes much and i haven't really been touching it!