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Enumerations

Geoffrey Hunter
Geoffrey Hunter
mbedded.ninja Author

Overview​

Enumerations in Java are treated as proper objects.

Iterating Over A Enum​

An enum can be iterated over by using a for in the following way:

for(MyEnum myEnum: MyEnum.values()) {
    // Your code here
}

Indexing An Array Using An Enum​

Because enumerations are proper objects, there is no way to directly use an enumeration as a index to a array (or any type of Collection for that matter). This is unlike C++, in where an enum is essentially a integer, and can be treated as such.

The recommended way is not use a enum as an array index at all, but rather replace the use of the array with a EnumMap instead.

O.K., so you really, really want to use an enum as an array index? This is not recommended, but you can use a Java enum as an array index by using the method enum.toOrdinal().