Question

It is a simple implementation of linked list to split one list into two sublists. Other details have been discarded for simplicity

class SList {
    private head;
    Object item;

    public void split_list(SList list1, SList list2) {
         list1.head = this.head;
         // Some other stuff
    }

}

isn’t it a visibility violation to do assign list1.head? To my surprise, I tried and it worked fine

Answer 1

As per JLS 6.6.8:

A private class member or constructor is accessible only within the body of the top level class (§7.6) that encloses the declaration of the member or constructor.

It’s the same class.