Accessing method in an inner class

Question

I have a class, which has an Inner Class, which is an extension of AbstractTableModel. The extended TableModel class has a new method, so it looks something like this;
public class TheOuterClass
    JTable aTable
    TableModel theTableModel
    public initTable
         theTableModel = new MyTableModel();
     public TableModel getModel()
         return theTableModel;
     private class MyTableModel extends AbstractTableModel
            public void myTableModelMethod()
}So, the idea here is that I have a class that has a table referenced by 'aTable', which uses MyTableModel as the class for it's table model. I have only implemented the basics here. The class also has a method called getModel(), so from a reference to 'TheOuterClass', I can access the table model.
Now, say I have a reference to TheOuterClass called toc, and I want to access my new method in the table model;
toc.getModel().myTableModelMethod()The above won't work, because getModel() returns a type of TableModel.
My question then is how do I cast this to the correct type, so I can access the method 'myTableMethod()'?
Is for example, the following a legal possibility, because I cannot seem to make it work;
(toc.getModel().getClass())(toc.getModel()).myTableMethod();The quick fix, I guess is to correct getModel in TheOuterClass, so it returns the correct type, but I am hoping to not do this. (This is part of a larger piece of code obviously, and TheOuterClass is in reality a bean, and I don't wnat to disturb anymore than I have to).
Any suggestions / ideas would be gratefully appreciated

Answer 1

You are of course both correct, the class is private, should have spotted that! Doh. Also correct in that this is 'not the most elegant design', but you know the way it is you have to work with what you are given.
So, I changed the class to public....
What I had hoped is that the following would work
((toc.getModel().getClass())(toc.getModel())).myTableMethod()get a reference to the table model
(toc.getModel())cast it to the correct type (not sure if this is a valid way to cast??)
((toc.getModel().getClass())(toc.getModel()))then call the method.
This does not compile, it complains about a missing ')', and I'm sure they are all there. My question here then is, Is this a valid way to cast, now that the inner class is public?
As to why I want to do this, then some explanation is required;
The table model holds a Vector with all the data in it, some which is not actually in the table (it was originally written this way). My additional method myTableMethod() is intended to help access the data that is not shown in the table.
Coming back to kajbj's point of creating an interface, I presume what is being suggested is that I create a public interface with the myTableMethod() in it, and make myTableModel implement this interface. Since the interface is public, then I can cast to that. Is this what you meant?
Thanks for your help so far