Conveniently map between enum and int / String

Question

When working with variables/parameters that can only take a finite number of values, I try to always use Java\'s enum, as in

public enum BonusT         


        

Answer 1

Really great question :-) I used solution similar to Mr.Ferguson`s sometime ago. Our decompiled enum looks like this:

final class BonusType extends Enum
{

    private BonusType(String s, int i, int id)
    {
        super(s, i);
        this.id = id;
    }

    public static BonusType[] values()
    {
        BonusType abonustype[];
        int i;
        BonusType abonustype1[];
        System.arraycopy(abonustype = ENUM$VALUES, 0, abonustype1 = new BonusType[i = abonustype.length], 0, i);
        return abonustype1;
    }

    public static BonusType valueOf(String s)
    {
        return (BonusType)Enum.valueOf(BonusType, s);
    }

    public static final BonusType MONTHLY;
    public static final BonusType YEARLY;
    public static final BonusType ONE_OFF;
    public final int id;
    private static final BonusType ENUM$VALUES[];

    static 
    {
        MONTHLY = new BonusType("MONTHLY", 0, 1);
        YEARLY = new BonusType("YEARLY", 1, 2);
        ONE_OFF = new BonusType("ONE_OFF", 2, 3);
        ENUM$VALUES = (new BonusType[] {
            MONTHLY, YEARLY, ONE_OFF
        });
    }
}

Seeing this is apparent why ordinal() is unstable. It is the i in super(s, i);. I'm also pessimistic that you can think of a more elegant solution than these you already enumerated. After all enums are classes as any final classes.