Question

How can I return the object of a private inner class

public class MainClass{
   public InnerClass getObj(){
       return this.new InnerClass()
   }
   private class InnerClass{
       InnerClass(){
       }
   }
}
-------------
MainClass mc = new MainClass();
mc.getObj(); // assume I am not holding it anywhere.

The above code is giving a null pointer exception, when I checked with the try-catch blocks.
Also, when tried in debug mode, its says ‘ClassNotFoundException‘

But I can see the class file generated as MainClass$InnerClass.class

Answer 1

Hmmm, I’m not having that same problem. Here’s my modified version of your code:

class MainClass {
    public static void main( String[] args ) {
        MainClass mc = new MainClass();
        InnerClass ic = mc.getObj();
        System.out.println( ic );
    }

    public InnerClass getObj() {
        return this.new InnerClass();
    }

    private class InnerClass {
        InnerClass() {}
    }
}

The result of this code is:

MainClass$InnerClass@64c3c749