Accessing protected inner class with .new

[Chris Jones]

My understanding is that inner classes are no different in terms of access modification as other class members, thus I was expecting the following to compile:

package A;
public class ClassA {
    protected void protectedMethod() {}
    protected class ProtectedInnerClass {}
}

is being used over here in package B

package B;
import A.*;
 
public class ClassB extends ClassA {
public static void main(String[] args) {
ClassB b = new ClassB(); 
b.protectedMethod(); // All good. I am inheriting ClassA and calling the protected method.
ClassB.ProtectedInnerClass pic = b.new ProtectedInnerClass(); // compiler error: ProtectedInnerClass is protected
}
}

Why can I not access the protected inner class when ClassB is inheriting it as is the case with the protected method?

thanks in advance!

[ August 08, 2008: Message edited by: Chris Jones ]
[ August 08, 2008: Message edited by: Chris Jones ]

[Hemnathbabu Kottaiveedu]

Hi Jones,

Your doubt is very obvious. I tried for around 45 min. to find out why the compilation is failing. Finally I got that.

The default constructor generated by compiler has same access modifier as of the class. So a protected constructor is generated which can be accessed in other packages only by classes which extend that inner class. I changed the code as below and it has compiled fine now.

   
package A;
public class ClassA 
{    
protected void protectedMethod() {}    
protected class ProtectedInnerClass {
public ProtectedInnerClass(){

}
}
}
 

Hope it clears your doubt.

[Chris Jones]

thanks a lot for taking the time to look at it. I've also learned that it's specified in the JLS here:

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/names.html#6.6.2