Override valueof() and toString() in Java enum

Question

The values in my enum are words that need to have spaces in them, but enums can't have spaces in their values so it's all bunched up. I want to override toString() to add these spaces where I tell it to.

I also want the enum to provide the correct enum when I use valueOf() on the same string that I added the spaces to.

For example:

public enum RandomEnum
{
     StartHere,
     StopHere
}

Call toString() on RandomEnum whose value is StartHere returns string "Start Here". Call valueof() on that same string ("Start Here") returns enum value StartHere.

How can I do this?

Answer 1

You can try out this code. Since you cannot override valueOf method you have to define a custom method (getEnum in the sample code below) which returns the value that you need and change your client to use this method instead.

public enum RandomEnum {

    StartHere("Start Here"),
    StopHere("Stop Here");

    private String value;

    RandomEnum(String value) {
        this.value = value;
    }

    public String getValue() {
        return value;
    }

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

    public static RandomEnum getEnum(String value) {
        for(RandomEnum v : values())
            if(v.getValue().equalsIgnoreCase(value)) return v;
        throw new IllegalArgumentException();
    }
}