How to initialize an instance of inner class if the inner class is declared in the method of outer class?

Question

I encounter the following question in Java, how to initialize an instance of inner class if the inner class is declared in the method of outer class? I met an compile error in the following case. Many thanks.

class Outer {
    public int a = 1;
    private int b = 2;
    public void method(final int c){
        int d = 3;
        class Inner{
            private void iMethod(int e){
                System.out.println("a = " + a);
                System.out.println("b = " + b);
                System.out.println("c = " + c);
                System.out.println("e = " + e);
            }
        }           
    }
    public static void main (String[] args){
        Outer outer = new Outer();
        Outer.Inner inner = outer.new Inner();// there is an compile error here
    }
}

Answer 1

how to initialize an instance of inner class if the inner class is declared in the method of outer class?

You can't. The scope of the class is confined to the method itself. It's similar to why you can't access local variables outside the method.

From JLS §6.3 - Scope of a Declaration:

The scope of a local class declaration immediately enclosed by a block (§14.2) is the rest of the immediately enclosing block, including its own class declaration.