java anoymous class can access private member of outer class. Why this code cannot access private data member?

Question

I want to access private member of a class by anonymous class created in a different class. I am new to java, kindly please explain this and tell what i am doing wrong.

class movie{
    private String moviename="bahubali";
    void display(){
        System.out.println(moviename);
   }
}

public class InnerClass{ //main class

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        movie anonymous=new movie() {
            void display() {
                System.out.println(moviename+" in anonymous class");
            }
        };
    
        anonymous.display();
    }
}

movie is not an outer class. It's rather a separate class altogether. — Rinkal Rohara
– Rinkal Rohara, Commented Jul 30, 2021 at 12:26
@RinkalRohara so can you tell where this anonymous class is created by the compiler? is it in Main class or in the movie class? — azeem mirza
– azeem mirza, Commented Jul 31, 2021 at 5:46

Koenigsberg · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-30 12:28:35Z

2

Your anonymous class inherits from the class movie (you should make it Movie instead btw. to comply with Java standards).

Inheriting classes are granted access to protected members, not to private members.

So the fix in this case should be changing

private String moviename="bahubali";

to

protected String moviename="bahubali";

.

answered Jul 30, 2021 at 12:28

Koenigsberg

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1 Comment

azeem mirza Over a year ago

i m just practicing concepts so forget about java naming standards. i was just checking that anonymous can access private members of the outer class, so i just figured out that we can do this in enclosing class(in my case -can access the private member of main class which is InnerClass).

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