What if main method is inside "non public class" of java file?

Question

I have a java file containing more than one class, out of which one is public. If main method is inside a non-public class. I can't run that java file. Why is that? and there is no compilation error as well. If so, how can I use that main method?

Answer 1

there is something i would like to add although everybody here believes that a public is necessary for the main in a class and that it won't work without main

you can have as many mains in a class as you desire, and you can have them without a public access modifier. but be careful, only that class which is named after the file can be public what i mean is if you name your file a.java , then only the class with name a can be public, none other can have this facility

here is a code to show this : as you can see the name of the file is helping.java

//:initialization/helping.java

class b{
    public static void main(){
        System.out.println("hello its b");
    }
}   

class helping {
    static void f(float i, Character... c) {
        System.out.println("first");
    }
    static void f(char a, Character... args) {
        System.out.println("second");
    }
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        f(1,'a');
        f('a','b');
        c.main();
    }
}

class c{
    public static void main(){
        System.out.println("hello its b");
    }
}
//:~
/*
 * output:  
 * first
 * second
 * hello its b  
 * */