Java String array comparing with enum

Question

given the following code...

private enum EventTypes {
    WORK, BREAK, WAIT, CLOSE, COMPLETE
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println("BREAK : " + EventTypes.BREAK);
    System.out.println(Arrays.asList(EventTypes.values()).contains("WORK"));
    System.out.println(Arrays.asList(EventTypes.values()).contains("WOR"));

}

This produces the output...

BREAK : BREAK
false
false

Now, from the output I can see "BREAK" exists as a String - so why does it believe "WORK" does not exist in the above enum?

Answer 1

Enum values aren't strings. Do this :

Arrays.asList(EventTypes.values()).contains(EventTypes.WORK));

If you want to know if your string is the name of an enum value, do

boolean exist = false;
try {
    EventTypes.valueOf("WORK");
    exist = true; 
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {}

Answer 2

You can remove the quotes but if you cannot you can parse the String.

Arrays.asList(EventTypes.values()).contains(EventTypes.valueOf("WORK"))

---

A brittle, but simple approach is to compare the strings

Arrays.toString(EventTypes.values()).contains("WORK")

The later may be ok for unit tests but not suitable for production code.

Answer 3

You can add custom implementation of contains

private enum EventTypes {
    WORK, BREAK, WAIT, CLOSE, COMPLETE;

    public static boolean contains(String str) {
        for (EventTypes enumtype : values()) {
            if (enumtype.name().contains(str))
                return true;
        }
        return false;
    }
}

Then you can use it like below.

    System.out.println(EventTypes.contains("WORK"));
    System.out.println(EventTypes.contains("WOR"));

Remember enums are constants and I don't know what you will achieve doing this. You can read more about enums on Enum Types

Correct usage is

EventTypes enumType =EventTypes.valueOf("WORK");

Answer 4

Try it this way.....

enum EventTypes {
    WORK, BREAK, WAIT, CLOSE, COMPLETE
};





public class T {

    public static void main(String[] args) {



        for(EventTypes e : EventTypes.values()){


            if(e.name().equals("WORK")){

                System.out.println("True");
            }else{

                System.out.println("False");
            }
        }
    }
}