Are Inner Classes lightweight?

Question

Are inner classes more lightweight than normal classes, or in the end java compiles inner classes just like normal classes?

I know classes in java are not all very l

Answer 1

Inner classes are still classes and they still have to be loaded by a ClassLoader. If anything, the opposite is true. A non-static inner class can keep the parent class from being garbage collected since it has a reference to the class which owns it.