Protected access from subclass in different package

[jason adam]

I understand that if a subclass is in a different package than its super it can't directly access any protected members, but instead gets its own inherited copy to deal with. The same should go for inner classes. However, the following code fails, and I can't seem to determine why. The commented out section of course would give a compiler error, it's p2 that I don't understand why it is giving an error also.

<font size=+0>package extensionA ;
public class InnerClassProt
{
    protected class Prot
    {
        public void printSomething()
        {
            System.out.println( "Something" );
        }
    }
}

package extensionB ;
import extensionA.* ;
public class SubProt extends InnerClassProt
{    
    public void doTest()
    {
        //Prot p1 = new InnerClassProt().new Prot();
        Prot p2 = new Prot();
        //p1.printSomething();
        p2.printSomething();
    }
}

Any ideas?
Jason

[jason adam]

Ok, I added a public no-argument constructor that does nothing to my inner class, and it compiles fine. Why? What is it about inner classes and constructors that made this fail? Does the default constructor get created with protected access also and therefore only accessible by subclasses of the inner class, or classes in the same package?
Jason

[Jim Yingst]

A default constructor has the same access level as the class it's associated with. The JLS describes this here.

[jason adam]

Thanks Jim!
Always just use public or private for the constructors, so entering new territory. Never sat down and read through the JLS, I think I know what I am doing this weekend
Jason

[Jim Yingst]

Sounds like a long weekend. I've never read it all the way through - I just refer to it whenever I need an authoritative answer on something. Enjoy...