Can I access an outer class's field from a static inner class?

Question

I have a class which has another static inner class:

class A {     private List<String> list;      public static class B {         // I want to update list here without making list as static          // I don't have an object for outer class     } } 

Answer 1

You generally use static classes when you don't need access to the instance variables. If you need to access the instance variables make the class non-static.

Answer 2

As you can see from other answers that you will need a non-static inner class to do that.

If you really cannot make your inner class non-static then you can add required getter and setter method in outer class and access them by creating an instance of outer class from inside inner static class:

public class A {     private List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();     public List<String> getList() {         return list;     }     public void setList(List<String> list) {         this.list = list;     }     public static class B {         // i want to update list here without making list as static         void updList() {             A a = new A();             a.setList(someOtherList);             System.out.println(a.getList());         }     } }