Question

I can’t seem to access instance members of the surrounding class from inside an enum, as I could from inside an inner class. Does that mean enums are static? Is there any access to the scope of the surrounding class’s instance, or do I have to pass the instance into the enum’s method where I need it?

public class Universe {     public final int theAnswer;      public enum Planet {         // ...         EARTH(...);         // ...          // ... constructor etc.          public int deepThought() {             // -> 'No enclosing instance of type 'Universe' is accessible in this scope'             return Universe.this.theAnswer;         }     }      public Universe(int locallyUniversalAnswer) {         this.theAnswer = locallyUniversalAnswer;     } } 

Answer 1

Yes, nested enums are implicitly static.

From the language specification section 8.9:

Nested enum types are implicitly static. It is permissable to explicitly declare a nested enum type to be static.