Java Static nested class

Question

I was going through some examples and found this code with static nested class:

public class LinkedList<E> ... {
...

 private static class Entry<E> { ... }

}

But I am not able to understand, why one should go for a static nested class instead of a general inner class? Please explain.

Answer 1

Hi, to understand their usage, you must know the difference between the two.

As you might know that a nested class is by default a member of its enclosing class. An inner class (or the non-static nested class) can access any of the data members of its enclosing class i.e., even if its declared private, it will be accessible by it. Whereas a static nested class can’t do so, rather it can interact with the instances of its outer class. In other words, a static nested class behaves just like a top-level class. In your example, since your LinkedList. Entry class in not accessing any of the LinkedList members, it is kept as static.

Hope this clears your doubt.