Inner class and nested Static Class in Java with Example

Inner class and nested static class in Java both are classes declared inside another class, known as top level class in Java. In Java terminology, If you declare a nested class static, it will called nested static class in Java while non static nested class are simply referred as Inner Class. Inner classes are also a popular topic in Java interviews. One of the popular question is difference between inner class and nested static class , some time also refereed as difference between static and non static nested class in Java. One of the most important question related to nested classes are Where should you use nested class in Java? This is one of the tricky Java question, If you have read Effective Java from Joshua Bloch than in one chapter he has suggested that if a class can only be useful to one particular class, it make sense to keep that inside the class itself otherwise declare it as top level class. Nested class improves Encapsulation and help in maintenance. I actually look JDK itself for examples and if you look HashMap class, you will find that Map.Entry is a good example of nested class in Java.

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