Problem with instantiation in static function

Question

I have a problem with instatiation of objects in a static function. When I do something like this,
public static void test1() {
String s = new String();
everything works fine, but when I try to do the same with a internally defined class, I get the error "non-static variable this cannot be referenced from a static context".
My code looks roughly like this:
public static void test2() {
Edge e = new Edge();
class Edge {
public int y_top;
public double x_int;
public int delta_y;
public double delta_x;
The compiler complains with the mentioned error message over the creation of a new Edge object and I don't have the slightest clue why... :| When I put the class Edge into an external file, it works.
Can anyone help me out there?

Answer 1

Your class Edge is a member of the instance of the current class. You don't have an implicit instance of the current class (the "this" reference) in a static context, therefore you get the error.
You need to either declare Edge as static, move it outside your class, or create an explicit instance of the outer class which you use to create instances of Edge ("Edge e = new YourMainClass().new Edge()")