hi,

I'v have extended a class from a librairy. This base-class has a protected inner class. When I try to use it through

Inner inner = baseclass.new Inner()

it fails returning the message that Inner is protected.

So what i have understood about protected inner classes is that they can be used inside the package they belong to & inside a class inheriting the outer base class.

Am I wrong?

thanks

What language are you programming in?

YEs that would help, I think it's vb.

Oh?!

Sorry,

in java.

thanks

I'm not sure about Java syntax, but I think it should be:

Inner inner = new baseclass().Inner();

This kind of explains it.

No, they can only be used inside the class that contains it, or any class that extends it [the class that contains the inner]. Protected simply implies that no outside class can actually instance it.

Say, you have a main in your base class, then even in that same package you won't be able to do:
Inner inner = new Inner(); nor new Base.Inner();
Since the Inner class is protected in side the base.

You can however instance it inside any class that extends your Base. So this would work nicely INSIDE the class:
Inner inner = new Inner(); or new baseclass.Inner() if you haven't imported baseclass
And again if you had done this say in your main, it wouldn't work again.

thanks for the answers,

it's ok now.