java enums ordering

Marthin picture Marthin · May 20, 2011 · Viewed 32.4k times · Source

Im using java enums to define how to render a modal window with buttons (Vaadin handles the rendering). My problem is that when I run the gui my buttons comes in a randomized order each time. So my question is this, since i use a enum set to hold my buttons, will that be unordered? whats the best way to make it into a ordered list?

My settings enum

public enum MODAL_SETTINGS {
    NEW_MODAL_WINDOW("menu.context.new", "400", MODAL_BUTTON.SAVE, MODAL_BUTTON.CANCEL),
    EDIT_MODAL_WINDOW("menu.context.modify","400", MODAL_BUTTON.UPDATE, MODAL_BUTTON.CANCEL),
    DELETE_MODAL_WINDOW("menu.context.delete", "250", false, MODAL_BUTTON.DELETE, MODAL_BUTTON.CANCEL);

    private EnumSet<MODAL_BUTTON> buttons;
    private String caption;
    private String width;
    private boolean isResizable = true;

    private MODAL_SETTINGS(String caption, String width, MODAL_BUTTON... buttons){
        this.setCaption(caption);
        this.setWidth(width);
        this.buttons = EnumSet.copyOf(Arrays.asList(buttons));
    }

    private MODAL_SETTINGS(String caption, String width, boolean isResizable, MODAL_BUTTON... buttons){
        this.setCaption(caption);
        this.setWidth(width);
        this.isResizable = isResizable;
        this.buttons = EnumSet.copyOf(Arrays.asList(buttons));
    }

    public EnumSet<MODAL_BUTTON> getButtons(){
        return buttons;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString(){
        String s = super.toString();
        s=s.replaceAll("_", ".");
        return s;
    }

    public void setCaption(String caption) {
        this.caption = caption;
    }

    public String getCaption() {
        return caption;
    }

    public void setWidth(String width) {
        this.width = width;
    }

    public String getWidth() {
        return width;
    }

    public boolean isResizable() {
        return isResizable;
    }
}

My buttons enum

public enum MODAL_BUTTON {
    SAVE, UPDATE, CANCEL, DELETE;
}

Answer

Robert Munteanu picture Robert Munteanu · May 20, 2011

Use Enum.values() instead of an EnumSet:

Note that each enum type has a static values method that returns an array containing all of the values of the enum type in the order they are declared. This method is commonly used in combination with the for-each loop to iterate over the values of an enumerated type.

Source: Enums in the Java 1.5 documentation