A regular inner class scoped inside another class's curly braces, but outside any method code (in other words, at the

same level that an instance variable is declared) is called a __method-local inner class__.

{% highlight java linenos %}

class Outer {

private String x = "Outer";

void doStuff() {

class Inner {

public void seeOuter() {

System.out.println("Outer x is " + x);

} // close inner class method

} // close inner class definition

} // close outer class method doStuff()

} // close outer class

{% endhighlight %}

In the above example, `class Inner` is the method-local inner class. But the inner class is useless because you are never

instantiating the inner class. Just because you declared the class doesn't mean you created an instance of it. So to

use the inner class, you must make an instance of it somewhere within the method but __below the inner class definition

(or the compiler won't be able to find the inner class)__.

The following legal code shows how to instantiate and use a method-local inner class:

{% highlight java linenos %}

class Outer {

private String x = "Outer";

void doStuff() {

class Inner {

public void seeOuter() {

System.out.println("Outer x is " + x);

} // close inner class method

MyInner mi = new MyInner(); // This line must come

// after the class

mi.seeOuter();

} // close inner class definition

} // close outer class method doStuff()

} // close outer class

{% endhighlight %}