Java: Local variable mi defined in an enclosing scope must be final or effectively final

The error means you cannot use the local variable mi inside an inner class.

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To use a variable inside an inner class you must declare it final. As long as mi is the counter of the loop and final variables cannot be assigned, you must create a workaround to get mi value in a final variable that can be accessed inside inner class:

final Integer innerMi = new Integer(mi);

So your code will be like this:

for (int mi=0; mi<colors.length; mi++){

    String pos = Character.toUpperCase(colors[mi].charAt(0)) + colors[mi].substring(1);
    JMenuItem Jmi =new JMenuItem(pos);
    Jmi.setIcon(new IconA(colors[mi]));

    // workaround:
    final Integer innerMi = new Integer(mi);

    Jmi.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                JMenuItem item = (JMenuItem) e.getSource();
                IconA icon = (IconA) item.getIcon();
                // HERE YOU USE THE FINAL innerMi variable and no errors!!!
                Color kolorIkony = getColour(colors[innerMi]); 
                textArea.setForeground(kolorIkony);
            }
        });

        mnForeground.add(Jmi);
    }
}

Yes this is happening because you are accessing mi variable from within your anonymous inner class, what happens deep inside is that another copy of your variable is created and will be use inside the anonymous inner class, so for data consistency the compiler will try restrict you from changing the value of mi so that's why its telling you to set it to final.

What you have here is a non-local variable (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-local_variable), i.e. you access a local variable in a method an anonymous class.

Local variables of the method are kept on the stack and lost as soon as the method ends, however even after the method ends, the local inner class object is still alive on the heap and will need to access this variable (here, when an action is performed).

I would suggest two workarounds : Either you make your own class that implements actionlistenner and takes as constructor argument, your variable and keeps it as an class attribute. Therefore you would only access this variable within the same object.

Or (and this is probably the best solution) just qualify a copy of the variable final to access it in the inner scope as the error suggests to make it a constant:

This would suit your case since you are not modifying the value of the variable.