Iterate enum values using java generics

Question

I\'m trying to find a way to iterate through an enum\'s values while using generics. Not sure how to do this or if it is possible.

The following code illustrates

Answer 1

For completeness, JDK8 gives us a relatively clean and more concise way of achieving this without the need to use the synthethic values() in Enum class:

Given a simple enum:

private enum TestEnum {
    A,
    B,
    C
}

And a test client:

@Test
public void testAllValues() {
    System.out.println(collectAllEnumValues(TestEnum.class));
}

This will print {A, B, C}:

public static > String collectAllEnumValues(Class clazz) {
    return EnumSet.allOf(clazz).stream()
            .map(Enum::name)
            .collect(Collectors.joining(", " , "\"{", "}\""));
}

Code can be trivially adapted to retrieve different elements or to collect in a different way.