Inner Classes: A Programming Construct

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Author:

Dung Nguyen, Stephen Wong

Subject:

Science and Technology

Institution Name:

Connexions

Collection:

Connexions

Grade Level:

Post-secondary

Abstract:

In Java, besides having fields and methods, a class can also have other classes as members. Just like fields and methods, a class member of can be static or non-static. A non-static class member is called an inner class. Inner class is a programming construct based on the powerful concept of closure prevalent in the functional programming paradigm. It allows on-the-fly creation of objects, which can communicate transparently with the enclosing object inside of which they come into existence. We illustrate the rationale and use of inner classes via a progression from top level helper classes to named static nested classes, to non-static named classes, and to anonymous inner classes with dynamic on-the-fly instantiation.

Course Type:

Learning Module

Languages:

English

Material Type:

Activities and Labs, Readings

Media Format:

Graphics/Photos, Text/HTML, Downloadable docs

Conditions of Use:

Creative Commons Attribution 2.0