Variable is accessed within inner class. Needs to be declared final

I'm getting a compilation error inside of my onClick.

Here's the code.

public class fieldsActivity extends Activity {

Button addSiteButton;
Button cancelButton;
Button signInButton;


/**
 * Called when the activity is first created.
 */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    // to create a custom title bar for activity window
    requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE);

    setContentView(R.layout.fields);
    // use custom layout title bar
    getWindow().setFeatureInt(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE, R.layout.topbar);

    Pager adapter = new Pager();
    ViewPager mPager = (ViewPager) findViewById(R.id.fieldspager);
    mPager.setAdapter(adapter);
    mPager.setCurrentItem(1);



    addSiteButton = (Button) findViewById(R.id.addSiteButton);
    addSiteButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {

        @Override
        public void onClick(View v) {
           mPager.setCurrentItem(2, true); //Compilation error happens here.
        }


    });


    cancelButton = (Button) findViewById(R.id.cancel_button);
    signInButton = (Button) findViewById(R.id.sign_in_button);

}

If you don't want to make it final, you can always just make it a global variable.

You can declare the variable final, or make it an instance (or global) variable. If you declare it final, you won't be able to change it later.

Any variable defined in a method and accessed by an anonymous inner class must be final. Otherwise, you could use that variable in the inner class, unaware that if the variable changes in the inner class, and then it is used later in the enclosing scope, the changes made in the inner class did not persist in the enclosing scope. Basically, what happens in the inner class stays in the inner class.

I wrote a more in-depth explanation here. It also explains why instance and global variables do not need to be declared final.

The error says it all, change:

ViewPager mPager = (ViewPager) findViewById(R.id.fieldspager);

to

final ViewPager mPager = (ViewPager) findViewById(R.id.fieldspager);

Here's a funny answer.

You can declare a final one-element array and change the elements of the array all you want apparently. I'm sure it breaks the very reason why this compiler rule was implemented in the first place but it's handy when you're in a time-bind as I was today.

I actually can't claim credit for this one. It was IntelliJ's recommendation! Feels a bit hacky. But doesn't seem as bad as a global variable so I thought it worth mentioning here. It's just one solution to the problem. Not necessarily the best one.

final int[] tapCount = {0};

addSiteButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {

    @Override
    public void onClick(View v) {
       tapCount[0]++;
    }

});