正如你所知道的Java內部類是其他類的範圍內定義的，同樣，內部bean是被其他bean的範圍內定義的bean。因此<property/>或<constructor-arg/>元素內<bean/>元件被稱為內部bean和它如下所示。

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

   <bean id="outerBean" class="...">
      <property name="target">
         <bean id="innerBean" class="..."/>
      </property>
   </bean>

</beans>

例如：

我們使用Eclipse IDE，然後按照下麵的步驟來創建一個Spring應用程序：

步驟	描述
1	Create a project with a name SpringExample and create a package com.yiibai under the src folder in the created project.
2	Add required Spring libraries using Add External JARs option as explained in the Spring Hello World Example chapter.
3	Create Java classes TextEditor, SpellChecker and MainApp under the com.yiibaipackage.
4	Create Beans configuration file Beans.xml under the src folder.
5	The final step is to create the content of all the Java files and Bean Configuration file and run the application as explained below.

這裡是TextEditor.java文件的內容：

package com.yiibai;

public class TextEditor {
   private SpellChecker spellChecker;

   // a setter method to inject the dependency.
   public void setSpellChecker(SpellChecker spellChecker) {
      System.out.println("Inside setSpellChecker." );
      this.spellChecker = spellChecker;
   }
   // a getter method to return spellChecker
   public SpellChecker getSpellChecker() {
      return spellChecker;
   }

   public void spellCheck() {
      spellChecker.checkSpelling();
   }
}

下麵是另外一個相關的類文件SpellChecker.java內容：

package com.yiibai;

public class SpellChecker {
   public SpellChecker(){
      System.out.println("Inside SpellChecker constructor." );
   }

   public void checkSpelling(){
      System.out.println("Inside checkSpelling." );
   }
   
}

以下是MainApp.java文件的內容：

package com.yiibai;

import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;

public class MainApp {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      ApplicationContext context = 
             new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("Beans.xml");

      TextEditor te = (TextEditor) context.getBean("textEditor");

      te.spellCheck();
   }
}

以下是配置文件beans.xml文件裡麵有配置為基於setter 注入，但使用內部bean：

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

   <!-- Definition for textEditor bean using inner bean -->
   <bean id="textEditor" class="com.yiibai.TextEditor">
      <property name="spellChecker">
         <bean id="spellChecker" class="com.yiibai.SpellChecker"/>
       </property>
   </bean>

</beans>

創建源代碼和bean配置文件來完成，讓我們運行應用程序。如果一切順利，這將打印以下信息：

Inside SpellChecker constructor.
Inside setSpellChecker.
Inside checkSpelling.