Using Enum values as String literals
You can't. I think you have FOUR options here. All four offer a solution but with a slightly different approach...
Option One: use the built-in name()
on an enum. This is perfectly fine if you don't need any special naming format.
String name = Modes.mode1.name(); // Returns the name of this enum constant, exactly as declared in its enum declaration.
Option Two: add overriding properties to your enums if you want more control
public enum Modes {
mode1 ("Fancy Mode 1"),
mode2 ("Fancy Mode 2"),
mode3 ("Fancy Mode 3");
private final String name;
private Modes(String s) {
name = s;
}
public boolean equalsName(String otherName) {
// (otherName == null) check is not needed because name.equals(null) returns false
return name.equals(otherName);
}
public String toString() {
return this.name;
}
}
Option Three: use static finals instead of enums:
public final class Modes {
public static final String MODE_1 = "Fancy Mode 1";
public static final String MODE_2 = "Fancy Mode 2";
public static final String MODE_3 = "Fancy Mode 3";
private Modes() { }
}
Option Four: interfaces have every field public, static and final:
public interface Modes {
String MODE_1 = "Fancy Mode 1";
String MODE_2 = "Fancy Mode 2";
String MODE_3 = "Fancy Mode 3";
}
Every enum has both a name()
and a valueOf(String)
method. The former returns the string name of the enum, and the latter gives the enum value whose name is the string. Is this like what you're looking for?
String name = Modes.mode1.name();
Modes mode = Modes.valueOf(name);
There's also a static valueOf(Class, String)
on Enum
itself, so you could also use:
Modes mode = Enum.valueOf(Modes.class, name);