Illegal Forward Reference and Enums

Question

I\'m programming a game in java which is made up of a grid of tiles. I wan\'t to be able to inuitively define the edges of the tiles and how they relate to each other, e.g.

Answer 1

You can also make use of an static innerclass inside the enum:

public enum EnumTest     
{     
NORTH( Orientation.VERTICAL ),     
SOUTH( Orientation.VERTICAL ),     
EAST( Orientation.HORIZONTAL ),     
WEST( Orientation.HORIZONTAL );     

private static class Orientation  
{  
private static final String VERTICAL = null;     
private static final String HORIZONTAL = null;     
}
}

Stolen from here :)

Answer 2

You could just define a method similar to the one below.

public enum Edge {
    TOP,
    BOTTOM,
    LEFT,
    RIGHT;

    public Edge opposite() {
        switch (this) {
            case TOP:
                return Edge.BOTTOM;
            case BOTTOM:
                return Edge.TOP;
            case LEFT:
                return RIGHT;
            case RIGHT:
                return LEFT;
            default:
                throw new RuntimeException("Oh dear");
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

My method is by using ordinal. This is a simple example, but for a much more complex example see below.

public enum Edge {
    // Don't change the order! This class uses ordinal() in an arithmetic context.
    TOP,    // = 0
    LEFT,   // = 1
    RIGHT,  // = 2
    BOTTOM; // = 3

    public Edge other() {
        return values()[3 - ordinal()];
    }
}

Although using ordinal is discouraged for being fragile, using ordinal in the same enum as it's defined in is less fragile, and it's further mitigated here with a comment. Though the example above is quite trivial, the next example is less so. Compare the original way and the way using ordinal:

From 98 lines:

public enum Axes {
    NONE,
    HORIZONTAL,
    VERTICAL,
    BOTH;

    public Axes add(Axes axes) {
        switch (axes) {
            case HORIZONTAL:
                if (this == NONE)
                    return HORIZONTAL;
                if (this == VERTICAL)
                    return BOTH;
                break;
            case VERTICAL:
                if (this == NONE)
                    return VERTICAL;
                if (this == HORIZONTAL)
                    return BOTH;
                break;
            case BOTH:
                return BOTH;
            default:
                throw new AssertionError(axes);
        }
        return this;
    }

    public Axes remove(Axes axes) {
        switch (axes) {
            case HORIZONTAL:
                if (this == HORIZONTAL)
                    return NONE;
                if (this == BOTH)
                    return VERTICAL;
                break;
            case VERTICAL:
                if (this == VERTICAL)
                    return NONE;
                if (this == BOTH)
                    return HORIZONTAL;
                break;
            case BOTH:
                return NONE;
            default:
                throw new AssertionError(axes);
        }
        return this;
    }

    public Axes toggle(Axes axes) {
        switch (axes) {
            case NONE:
                return this;
            case HORIZONTAL:
                switch (this) {
                    case NONE:
                        return HORIZONTAL;
                    case HORIZONTAL:
                        return NONE;
                    case VERTICAL:
                        return BOTH;
                    case BOTH:
                        return VERTICAL;
                    default:
                        throw new AssertionError(axes);
                }
            case VERTICAL:
                switch (this) {
                    case NONE:
                        return VERTICAL;
                    case HORIZONTAL:
                        return BOTH;
                    case VERTICAL:
                        return NONE;
                    case BOTH:
                        return HORIZONTAL;
                    default:
                        throw new AssertionError(axes);
                }
            case BOTH:
                switch (this) {
                    case NONE:
                        return BOTH;
                    case HORIZONTAL:
                        return VERTICAL;
                    case VERTICAL:
                        return HORIZONTAL;
                    case BOTH:
                        return NONE;
                    default:
                        throw new AssertionError(axes);
                }
            default:
                throw new AssertionError(axes);
        }
    }
}

to 19 lines:

public enum Axes {
    // Don't change the order! This class uses ordinal() as a 2-bit bitmask.
    NONE,       // = 0 = 0b00
    HORIZONTAL, // = 1 = 0b01
    VERTICAL,   // = 2 = 0b10
    BOTH;       // = 3 = 0b11

    public Axes add(Axes axes) {
        return values()[ordinal() | axes.ordinal()];
    }

    public Axes remove(Axes axes) {
        return values()[ordinal() & ~axes.ordinal()];
    }

    public Axes toggle(Axes axes) {
        return values()[ordinal() ^ axes.ordinal()];
    }
}

Answer 4

You could use an internal Map instead to define these associations. This works if at the point of initializing the Map, you already have all enum values created:

public enum Edge {

  TOP,
  BOTTOM,
  LEFT,
  RIGHT;

  private static final Map<Edge, Edge> opposites = 
        new EnumMap<Edge, Edge>(Edge.class);
  static {
    opposites.put(TOP, BOTTOM);
    opposites.put(BOTTOM, TOP);
    opposites.put(LEFT, RIGHT);
    opposites.put(RIGHT, LEFT);
  }

  public Edge opposite(){
    return opposites.get(this);
  }
}

Answer 5

enum Edge {
    TOP {
        @Override
        public Edge opposite() {
            return BOTTOM;
        }
    },
    BOTTOM {
        @Override
        public Edge opposite() {
            return TOP;
        }
    },
    LEFT {
        @Override
        public Edge opposite() {
            return RIGHT;
        }
    },
    RIGHT {
        @Override
        public Edge opposite() {
            return LEFT;
        }
    };

    public abstract Edge opposite();
}