How to use pass enum to DTO

Question

I am passing a DTO whose one of the instance variable should be of type ENUM. However the enum is defined in another class, a class that creates the DTO.

A short summary:

public class Node {
    Enum nodeType; <--- should belong 
    Node (Enum nodeType) {
        this.nodeType = nodeType;
    }
}


public class CreateNode {
   Enum { TEXT_NODE, ATTR_NODE };

   Node returnNode() {
      // return node of Enum TEXT_NODE.
   } 

 }

Now,

1. What should be done to share enum between CreateNode and Node ?

2. How should the "recipient" of Node receive the node with one of the type as enum ?

Answer 1

You need to have a name for your enum.

enum NodeType { // Name of the enum is NodeType
    TEXT_NODE, ATTR_NODE
}
class Node {
    NodeType nodeType; // A field of type NodeType
    public Node(NodeType nodeType) {
        this.nodeType = nodeType;
    }
}
class CreateNode {
    Node returnNode() {
        return new Node(NodeType.TEXT_NODE); // return the TEXT_NODE
    }
}

To be able to get a Node with this NodeType set in some other class/method, you can do something like this

// In some class
// In some method
public void someMethod(){
    Node nodeWithEnumType = new CreateNode().returnNode();
    // Other stuffs
}

Answer 2

public class Node {
    CreateNode.NodeType nodeType;

    public Node(CreateNode.NodeType nodeType) {
        this.nodeType = nodeType;
    }
}

class CreateNode {
    enum NodeType {
        TEXT_NODE,
        ATTR_NODE
    };

    public Node returnNode() {
        return new Node(NodeType.TEXT_NODE);
    }
}