Creating instances of public inner classes of generic classes

Question

So I have something like the following:

public class Enclosing<T extends Comparable<T>> {
    // non-relevant code snipped
    public class Inner {
        private T value;
        public Inner(T t) {
            value = t;
        }
    }
}

Everything compiles and the world is happy. However, whenever I try to create an instance of Enclosing.Inner as follows, I can't:

new Enclosing<Integer>.Inner(5);

The following error happens:

Cannot allocate the member type Enclosing<Integer>.Inner using a parameterized compound name; use its simple name and an enclosing instance of type Enclosing<Integer>.

It is important to note that I cannot make the inner class static, because it contains a field of type T.

How can I work around this?

Answer 1

To instantiate an inner class, you must first instantiate the outer class. Then, create the inner object within the outer object with this syntax:

  Enclosing<Integer> outerObject = new Enclosing<Integer>();
  Enclosing<Integer>.Inner innerObject = outerObject.new Inner();

The ugly syntax suggests a code smell in this design. There should probably be a factory method of some kind in the Enclosing class (getInner or something) and the inner class should probably implement a public interface if it is being used from outside its enclosing class.