Non-public top-level class vs static nested class

Question

It seems to me that non-public top-level classes and static nested classes essentially perform the same tasks when creating a helper class.

A.java

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Answer 1

Nesting a class (statically in Java) sends a clear message of intent: the nested class AHelper is only relevant and usable to support A class. It has no meaning on its own, and this is immediately obvious.