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Message:

Inheritance and protected inner classes - complete posting

Posted by Christian Schmitt on December 07, 2000 at 8:10 AM

Sorry, i accidently hit the Post button as i was still composing my question...

Again i've got a class A and a protected inner class B with a protected constructor:

public class A{
...
protected class B{
protected B (String s, boolean b){
...
}
...
}
}

And i've got a class C that inherits form A. In C there's a method which should create some Objects of B. The following code only compiles if B is declared public:

public class C extends A{
...
public void f(String s, boolean b){
B b = new B(s,b);
...
}
}

If B is still protected, the compiler complains about a missing constructor of B with signature (C, String, boolean). I know that's something about the 'secret' reference to A (or C??) which has to be passed to the constructor of B. But why does it work with B declared public? And i don't want to declare B public, so how can i do this with a protected B?

I've tried the following:
- I provided a constructor with signature (A, String, boolean) - not C but A, because there will be a D and an E ... which inherit from A. Now the compiler complains about a missing constructor with signature (C,A,String, boolean).
- I made a method in A which is called by a method in C and generates and returns a B. That works. But i don't want to do this.

Thanks for your help,
Chris

• Very simple mistake Kishori Sharan December 07, 2000 at 10:50 AM (6)
  • No, that's just a typo in my posting. Christian Schmitt December 08, 2000 at 3:19 AM (5)
    • Must be a JDK version problem Kishori Sharan December 08, 2000 at 8:59 AM (4)
      • It works, but if ... Christian Schmitt December 11, 2000 at 8:46 AM (3)
        • Good question!!! Kishori Sharan December 11, 2000 at 10:33 AM (2)
          • one more... Christian Schmitt December 13, 2000 at 9:01 AM (1)
            • U got it... Kishori Sharan December 13, 2000 at 2:24 PM (0)