“unexpected type” error when comparing enum values

Question

Most people I've seen with this problem were using = where they needed ==. What's causing my problem here?

com\callmeyer\jopp\FieldCoordinator.java:303: unexpected type
required: class, package
found   : variable
                    if (event.getType() == event.Type.INSERT) {
                                           ^

The enum definition and accessor:

public class DataLayoutEvent {
    public static enum Type { INSERT, DELETE, RENAME, MOVE, RESIZE }

    private Type type = null;

    public Type getType() {
        return type;
    }

    ...
}

and the method where the error occurs:

public void layoutChanged(DataLayoutEvent event) {
    if (event.getType() == event.Type.INSERT) {
        fieldAdded(event.getField(), event.getToIndex());
    }

    ...

Answer 1

Use static access instead of instance access:

if (event.getType() == DataLayoutEvent.Type.INSERT) {

You can (but shouldn't) use instance access for static members (methods and fields), but not for inner types.

Answer 2

It should just be:

// From within DataLayoutEvent
if (event.getType() == Type.INSERT) {

or

// From other classes
if (event.getType() == DataLayoutEvent.Type.INSERT) {

The Type part is the name of a type - it can't be qualified by a variable value (event). You could import DataLayoutEvent.Type if you wanted to use the first form from elsewhere, by the way.

Answer 3

I think you need to refer to Type differently:

if (event.getType() == DataLayoutEvent.Type.INSERT) { ... }