Question

I am reinitializing the member variable of a local class and am getting a compilation error. What is wrong here? Why will this not compile? Thanks!

This will not compile

public class TestSomething {

public void someMethod(){
    class LocalClassInner{
        int i=100; // Error on this line.Syntax error on token ";", , expected

        i=200;
    }       
}

}   

This compiles just fine

public class TestSomething {

public void someMethod(){
    class LocalClassInner{
        int i=100;
        //i=200;
    }       
}}

Answer 1

This isn’t really an local class problem. You can’t put assignment statements at the “top-level” of any class.

Assignment statements need to go in a method, constructor, static initializer, or instance initializer.

WHen you wrote

int i = 100;

you were actually declaring a field of the inner class (as you know). You can reassign this field, provided you did so in a constructor, method, etc.

ADDENDUM

The following uses an instance initializer, just for fun:

public void someMethod() {
    class LocalClassInner {
        int i = 100;
        {i=200;}
    }           
}

It compiles fine, see http://ideone.com/qjnv3