using enums or static string variable in java

Question

got a question around which one is better to use. Java5 Enums or static string.

I always get the data in form of Strings.

So for example,

private static final String LOAD_DRUGS = "load drugs";

or use Java5 enums

public enum LoadType
{
LOAD_DRUGS("load drugs");
}

In my code, I always receive "load drugs" kind of strings. I use if else statements to see what to do next based on it. But I am tending to use java5 enums and use switch case, but I always have to get the enum based of the string value I get.

So what are the pro's and con's of both ways??

Thanks!!

Answer 1

This answer is probably overkill. Maybe there's a badge for that. Anyway, it could be useful in a situation in which you have a lot of enumeration values and have to deal with a Strings as being the means by which another system sends information to you. That is exactly what I have (something north of 50), so I used this construct so that I could generate a mapping just once of the Strings reported by the db and the enums I used internally, and then not think about it after -- toString and fromString do all the work:

package com.stevej;

import com.google.common.collect.HashBiMap;

public enum TestEnum {
  ALPHA("Alpha"), BETA("Beta"), GAMMA("Gamma");

  private static HashBiMap<TestEnum, String> stringMapping = HashBiMap
      .create(TestEnum.values().length);

  private String stringValue = null;

  TestEnum(String stringValue) {
    this.stringValue = stringValue;
  }

  String getStringValue() {
    return this.stringValue;
  }

  @Override
  public String toString() {
    return stringMapping.get(this);
  }

  public static TestEnum fromString(String string) {
    return stringMapping.inverse().get(string);
  }

  static {
    for (TestEnum e : TestEnum.values()) {
      stringMapping.put(e, e.getStringValue());
    }
  }
}

Here's a quick test to show the data switching back and forth:

package com.stevej;

public class StackOverflowMain {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println(">> " + TestEnum.ALPHA);
    System.out.println(">> " + TestEnum.BETA);
    System.out.println(">> " + TestEnum.GAMMA);

    TestEnum a = TestEnum.fromString("Alpha");
    TestEnum b = TestEnum.fromString("Beta");
    TestEnum c = TestEnum.fromString("Gamma");

    System.out.println(">> " + a);
    System.out.println(">> " + b);
    System.out.println(">> " + c);
  }

}

The output shows the use of the mixed case values instead of the uppercase, showing my strings are being used:

>> Alpha
>> Beta
>> Gamma
>> Alpha
>> Beta
>> Gamma

Note that I am using the Google Guava library so I can take advantage of the BiMap.

Answer 2

you can try a simple substitution for turn the string into an enum

switch(MyEnum.valueOf(text.replace(' ', '_')) {
    case load_strings:

You can use toUpperCase() if you want it in upper case.

You should do what you think is the simplest and clearest.