How to get an enum value from a string value in Java?

java enums
Malachi picture Malachi · Mar 2, 2009 · Viewed 1.2M times · Source

Say I have an enum which is just

public enum Blah {
    A, B, C, D
}

and I would like to find the enum value of a string, for example "A" which would be Blah.A. How would it be possible to do this?

Is the Enum.valueOf() the method I need? If so, how would I use this?

Answer

Michael Myers picture Michael Myers · Mar 2, 2009

Yes, Blah.valueOf("A") will give you Blah.A.

Note that the name must be an exact match, including case: Blah.valueOf("a") and Blah.valueOf("A ") both throw an IllegalArgumentException.

The static methods valueOf() and values() are created at compile time and do not appear in source code. They do appear in Javadoc, though; for example, Dialog.ModalityType shows both methods.

Related questions

Comparing Java enum members: == or equals()?

I know that Java enums are compiled to classes with private constructors and a bunch of public static members. When comparing two members of a given enum, I've always used .equals(), e.g. public useEnums(SomeEnum a) { if(a.equals(…

Read More
Using Enum values as String literals

What is the best way to use the values stored in an Enum as String literals? For example: public enum Modes { some-really-long-string, mode1, mode2, mode3 } Then later I could use Mode.mode1 to return its string representation as mode1. Without …

Read More
Best way to create enum of strings?

What is the best way to have a enum type represent a set of strings? I tried this: enum Strings{ STRING_ONE("ONE"), STRING_TWO("TWO") } How can I then use them as Strings?

Read More