eliminating duplicate Enum code

Question

I have a large number of Enums that implement this interface:

/**
 * Interface for an enumeration, each element of which can be uniquely identified by it's code
 */
public interface CodableEnum {

    /**
     * Get the element with a particular code
     * @param code
     * @return
     */
    public CodableEnum getByCode(String code);

    /**
     * Get the code that identifies an element of the enum
     * @return
     */
    public String getCode();
}

A typical example is:

public enum IMType implements CodableEnum {

    MSN_MESSENGER("msn_messenger"),
    GOOGLE_TALK("google_talk"),
    SKYPE("skype"),
    YAHOO_MESSENGER("yahoo_messenger");

    private final String code;

    IMType (String code) {
        this.code = code;
    }

    public String getCode() {
        return code;
    }   

    public IMType getByCode(String code) {
        for (IMType e : IMType.values()) {
            if (e.getCode().equalsIgnoreCase(code)) {
                return e;
            }
        }
    }
}

As you can imagine these methods are virtually identical in all implementations of CodableEnum. I would like to eliminate this duplication, but frankly don't know how. I tried using a class such as the following:

public abstract class DefaultCodableEnum implements CodableEnum {

    private final String code;

    DefaultCodableEnum(String code) {
        this.code = code;
    }

    public String getCode() {
        return this.code;
    }   

    public abstract CodableEnum getByCode(String code);  
}

But this turns out to be fairly useless because:

1. An enum cannot extend a class
2. Elements of an enum (SKYPE, GOOGLE_TALK, etc.) cannot extend a class
3. I cannot provide a default implementation of getByCode(), because DefaultCodableEnum is not itself an Enum. I tried changing DefaultCodableEnum to extend java.lang.Enum, but this doesn't appear to be allowed.

Any suggestions that do not rely on reflection? Thanks, Don

Answer 1

You could factor the duplicated code into a CodeableEnumHelper class:

public class CodeableEnumHelper {
    public static CodeableEnum getByCode(String code, CodeableEnum[] values) {
        for (CodeableEnum e : values) {
            if (e.getCode().equalsIgnoreCase(code)) {
                return e;
            }
        }
        return null;
    }
}

Each CodeableEnum class would still have to implement a getByCode method, but the actual implementation of the method has at least been centralized to a single place.

public enum IMType implements CodeableEnum {
    ...
    public IMType getByCode(String code) {
        return (IMType)CodeableEnumHelper.getByCode(code, this.values());
    } 
}

Answer 2

Abstract enums are potentially very useful (and currently not allowed). But a proposal and prototype exists if you'd like to lobby someone in Sun to add it:

http://freddy33.blogspot.com/2007/11/abstract-enum-ricky-carlson-way.html

Sun RFE:

http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6570766

Answer 3

To tidy up dave's code:

public class CodeableEnumHelper {
    public static <E extends CodeableEnum> E getByCode(
        String code, E[] values
    ) {
        for (E e : values) {
            if (e.getCode().equalsIgnoreCase(code)) {
                return e;
            }
        }
        return null;
    }
}

public enum IMType implements CodableEnum {
    ...
    public IMType getByCode(String code) {
        return CodeableEnumHelper.getByCode(code, values());
    } 
}

Or more efficiently:

public class CodeableEnumHelper {
    public static <E extends CodeableEnum> Map<String,E> mapByCode(
        E[] values
    ) {
        Map<String,E> map = new HashMap<String,E>();
        for (E e : values) {
            map.put(e.getCode().toLowerCase(Locale.ROOT), value) {
        }
        return map;
    }
}

public enum IMType implements CodableEnum {
    ...
    private static final Map<String,IMType> byCode =
        CodeableEnumHelper.mapByCode(values());
    public IMType getByCode(String code) {
        return byCode.get(code.toLowerCase(Locale.ROOT));
    } 
}

Answer 4

I had a similar issue with a localization component that I wrote. My component is designed to access localized messages with enum constants that index into a resource bundle, not a hard problem.

I found that I was copying and pasting the same "template" enum code all over the place. My solution to avoid the duplication is a code generator that accepts an XML configuration file with the enum constant names and constructor args. The output is the Java source code with the "duplicated" behaviors.

Now, I maintain the configuration files and the generator, not all of the duplicated code. Everywhere I would have had enum source code, there is now an XML config file. My build scripts detect out-of-date generated files and invoke the code generator to create the enum code.

You can see this component here. The template that I was copying and pasting is factored out into an XSLT stylesheet. The code generator runs the stylesheet transformation. An input file is quite concise compared to the generated enum source code.

HTH,
Greg

Answer 5

Unfortunately, I don't think that there is a way to do this. Your best bet would pro ably be to give up in emums altogether and use conventional class extension and static members. Otherwise, get used to duplicating that code. Sorry.

Answer 6

Create a type-safe utility class which will load enums by code:

The interface comes down to:

public interface CodeableEnum {
    String getCode();
}

The utility class is:

import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;


public class CodeableEnumUtils {
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    public static <T extends CodeableEnum>  T getByCode(String code, Class<T> enumClass) throws IllegalArgumentException, SecurityException, IllegalAccessException, InvocationTargetException, NoSuchMethodException {
        T[] allValues = (T[]) enumClass.getMethod("values", new Class[0]).invoke(null, new Object[0]);
        for (T value : allValues) {
            if (value.getCode().equals(code)) {
                return value;
            }
        }
        return null;
}

}

A test case demonstrating usage:

import junit.framework.TestCase;


public class CodeableEnumUtilsTest extends TestCase {
    public void testWorks() throws Exception {
    assertEquals(A.ONE, CodeableEnumUtils.getByCode("one", A.class));
      assertEquals(null, CodeableEnumUtils.getByCode("blah", A.class));
    }

enum A implements CodeableEnum {
    ONE("one"), TWO("two"), THREE("three");

    private String code;

    private A(String code) {
        this.code = code;
    }

    public String getCode() {
        return code;
    }   
}
}

Now you are only duplicating the getCode() method and the getByCode() method is in one place. It might be nice to wrap all the exceptions in a single RuntimeException too :)

Answer 7

Here I have another solution:

interface EnumTypeIF {
String getValue();

EnumTypeIF fromValue(final String theValue);

EnumTypeIF[] getValues();

class FromValue {
  private FromValue() {
  }

  public static EnumTypeIF valueOf(final String theValue, EnumTypeIF theEnumClass) {

    for (EnumTypeIF c : theEnumClass.getValues()) {
      if (c.getValue().equals(theValue)) {
        return c;
      }
    }
    throw new IllegalArgumentException(theValue);
  }
}

The trick is that the inner class can be used to hold "global methods".

Worked pretty fine for me. OK, you have to implement 3 Methods, but those methods, are just delegators.

Answer 8

It seems like you are actually implementing run time type information. Java provides this as a language feature.

I suggest you look up RTTI or reflection.

Answer 9

I don't think this is possible. However, you could use the enum's valueOf(String name) method if you were going to use the enum value's name as your code.

Answer 10

How about a static generic method? You could reuse it from within your enum's getByCode() methods or simply use it directly. I always user integer ids for my enums, so my getById() method only has do do this: return values()[id]. It's a lot faster and simpler.

Answer 11

If you really want inheritance, don't forget that you can implement the enum pattern yourself, like in the bad old Java 1.4 days.

Answer 12

About as close as I got to what you want was to create a template in IntelliJ that would 'implement' the generic code (using enum's valueOf(String name)). Not perfect but works quite well.

Answer 13

In your specific case, the getCode() / getByCode(String code) methods seems very closed (euphemistically speaking) to the behaviour of the toString() / valueOf(String value) methods provided by all enumeration. Why don't you want to use them?

Answer 14

Another solution would be not to put anything into the enum itself, and just provide a bi-directional map Enum <-> Code for each enum. You could e.g. use ImmutableBiMap from Google Collections for this.

That way there no duplicate code at all.

Example:

public enum MYENUM{
  VAL1,VAL2,VAL3;
}

/** Map MYENUM to its ID */
public static final ImmutableBiMap<MYENUM, Integer> MYENUM_TO_ID = 
new ImmutableBiMap.Builder<MYENUM, Integer>().
put(MYENUM.VAL1, 1).
put(MYENUM.VAL2, 2).
put(MYENUM.VAL3, 3).
build();

Answer 15

In my opinion, this would be the easiest way, without reflection and without adding any extra wrapper to your enum.

You create an interface that your enum implements:

public interface EnumWithId {

    public int getId();

}

Then in a helper class you just create a method like this one:

public <T extends EnumWithId> T getById(Class<T> enumClass, int id) {
    T[] values = enumClass.getEnumConstants();
    if (values != null) {
        for (T enumConst : values) {
            if (enumConst.getId() == id) {
                return enumConst;
            }
        }
    }

    return null;
}

This method could be then used like this:

MyUtil.getInstance().getById(MyEnum.class, myEnumId);