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Cases where the imports in Java aren't needed (unusual qualification) [Question Edited]

I've noticed there are some special ways to qualify an entity in Java:

Object o = new Outer().new Inner();

In this case, we are qualifying the Inner class with the Outer class, so we only need to import the Outer class:

import mypackage.Outer;

Are there any other cases like this? (That is, where an unusual qualification occurs - by unusual I mean not: fullQualifier.identifier).

I'm excluding the case of the automatic imports (java.lang, primitive types, etc.)

Solution

  • I think you misunderstand the construct you've described:

    Object o = new Outer().new Inner();

    is actually a way to fully qualify the Inner class' constructor, just as in

    Outer.Inner i = new Outer().new Inner();

    On the other hand, you could write this:

    import path.to.Outer;
import path.to.Outer.Inner;

// ...

Inner i = new Outer().new Inner();