Is x being accessed from a static context when using anonymous inner classes?

[O. Ziggy]

In the following example code

class AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1{
	
	private String x = "in AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1A";
	
	public void pop(){
		System.out.println(x);
	}	
}

class AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1Controller{
	
	private String x = "in AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1";
	
	public static void main(String[] args){	
		
		AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1 an1 = new AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1(){
			public void pop(){
				System.out.println(x + " [Via anonymous  flavour 1 class]");
			}
		};		
	}	
}

The compiler is complaining that x cannot be accessed from a non-static context

ZiggySamples.java:3117: non-static variable x cannot be referenced from a static context
                                System.out.println(x + " [Via anonymous  flavour 1 class]");
                                                   ^

Given that AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1.x is private, i am guessing that reference to x from the anonymous class is accessing AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1Controller.x. But why is it saying that this is being access from a static context when i am creating a just in time object at the time i am access it?

Also, if i change the access modifier for AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1.x and make it protected, the compiler does not complain. How does it decide which x it should use when there are two possibilities? In this situation, i thought it would have used the one local it i.e. AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1Controller.x

[Hebert Coelho]

The problem is that

private String x 

in both codes are non static.

change to static and it will work.

[Paul Clapham]

The simple thing to do to investigate those questions would be to write that same code with the anonymous inner class declared inside an instance method instead of inside a static method.

[Mike Simmons]

O. Ziggy wrote:Given that AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1.x is private, i am guessing that reference to x from the anonymous class is accessing AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1Controller.x.

Correct.

O. Ziggy wrote:But why is it saying that this is being access from a static context when i am creating a just in time object at the time i am access it?

But your "just in time object" is a different class. You need a AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1Controller, and you have created a AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1. And you can't access the x inside the AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1, because it's private, and you're in a different class.

[O. Ziggy]

Not sure how this question ended up here. I was intending to post it in the SCJP section.

I know what the error is saying. What i dont understand is why it is complaining that i am accessing it from a static context. Even though the inner class is being declared inside main, the actual reference to it is via an instance method. i.e the an1 instance.

Thanks in advance.

[Mike Simmons]

Well, that's exactly the question I just answered, isn't it? It's an instance method of a totally unrelated class. You can't use an instance of AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1 to access AnonymousInnerClassesFlavour1Controller.x.. Those are not the same class.

[Paul Clapham]

I just did the test that I suggested yesterday. And yes, you don't get a compile error if the nested class is instantiated inside an instance method.

So the "static context" which you didn't understand is the method "public static void main".