I've been learning about the new enum keyword in
Java 5. I'm curious what you can accomplish with the new enum keyword that you coudln't accmoplish before with regular Java objects.
For example, you create an Enum class that does the following:
- Contains a Map that associates
String keys with Integer values.
- Contains a private int that contains the "current" value of the Enum in instances of the Enum class.
- Restricts outside access to the Map.
- Only allows keys and values to be set in the class when it is constructed.
- Throws an exception if someone attempts to set an invalid value as the value of an Enum instance.
I've read that enum keyword gives increased type safety in Java, at least compared to using
variables in a class definition, but if you used a class like the one I just described I don't think this is the case. You couldn't ever set an incorrect value in the class described above, and methods could be written to accept instances of the class, not raw ints.
I know the guys (and gals) that design the Java programming language are a lot smarter than me. I must be missing some great advantage of the enum keyword. It just seems odd to add that amount of complexity to the language for something that could be acheived with regular classes.
Can someone explain the design logic/advantages of the enum keyword to me?
Thanks,
Landon
