Question

Will having classes in my project that are never addressed in any way effect the end result? Do they even get compiled?

How about inner classes, static inner classes or top-level classes with static members?

Thanks in advance.
(Sorry if my question is somewhat broad.)

Answer 1

All classes defined in the source files you are compiling will get compiled, whether they are used or not at runtime is of no consequence during the compilation phase.

However classes that are never used will never get loaded at runtime.

If your “end result” is the runtime behavior of your project, then the unused classes that are compiled but never loaded and never used will not affect the “end result” in any way.

However, note that if your unused classes have compilation errors then they will stop your project from compiling at all (and hence keep you from being able to run it), even though said classes would not have been used at runtime.