Enum String

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Jason Cavett - 08 Feb 2008 02:15 GMT

Is it possible to get a String back from an enum value? Here is a
sample of my enum:

// XML tags
public enum XML {
DATA_TAG("data");

private final String tag;

private XML(String tag) {
this.tag = tag;
}

@Override
public String toString() {
return tag;
}
}

Now, I could like to be able to just call: XML.DATA_TAG and that
returns a String. Is this possible? Something is telling me that
I'll always have to call the toString() function as well, but I wanted
to check first.

Thanks

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Lew - 08 Feb 2008 02:31 GMT

> Is it possible to get a String back from an enum value? Here is a
> sample of my enum:
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> I'll always have to call the toString() function as well, but I wanted
> to check first.

Given that DATA_TAG is not of type String itself, yes, you'll have to call
toString() just like for any other object if you want a String representation.

Signature

Lew

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Jason Cavett - 08 Feb 2008 02:39 GMT

> > Is it possible to get a String back from an enum value? Here is a
> > sample of my enum:
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
>
> - Show quoted text -

Alright. I sort of figured that I would. It kind of stinks, though,
because wherever I was using my static Strings before, I now have to
do:

Data::XML::DATA_TAG.toString()
instead of
Data::DATA_TAG

Seems kind of dumb to make the XML tags into an enum. Any opinion/
argument one way or another?

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Mark Space - 08 Feb 2008 02:52 GMT

> Seems kind of dumb to make the XML tags into an enum. Any opinion/
> argument one way or another?

Java has several XML parsers available in the standard API. SAX, JDOM,
XPath, plus probably a few more. Maybe look at one of those?

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Stefan Ram - 08 Feb 2008 02:40 GMT

>Now, I could like to be able to just call: XML.DATA_TAG and that
>returns a String. Is this possible?

You can pass an object instead of the string value of that
object, if the callee will invoke »toString()« himself.

For example, the following programm prints the string value
»alpha« of the object »new Text()« even though »toString()«
is not explicitly invoked within the following source code.

class Text
{ public java.lang.String toString(){ return "alpha"; }}

public class Main
{ public static void main( final java.lang.String[] args )
{ java.lang.System.out.println( new Text() ); }}

alpha

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Roedy Green - 08 Feb 2008 07:17 GMT

On Thu, 7 Feb 2008 18:15:33 -0800 (PST), Jason Cavett
<jason.cavett@gmail.com> wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted someone
who said :

>Is it possible to get a String back from an enum value?

yes. You can go either way. See valueOf and toString.

see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/enum.html
--

Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
The Java Glossary
http://mindprod.com

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Enum String

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