"Describing" an array

[Patrick Bucher]

Hi there

I have a job to do related to CSV-files. First of all, I receive the file, then I split it up into rows. Then I split this rows into fields and I have an String-array of data. Now I have to read out certain data and create objects out of that data. If I do it straightforward, the code looks like this:

Dog d = new Dog();
d.setName(data[143]);
d.setNameOfOwner(data[198]);
// and so on

This code is not very nice to read, because there are literal constants in it. The easiest solution would be to create constants to "describe" the array:

private static final int NAME_OF_DOG = 143;
private static final int NAME_OF_OWNER = 198;
// ...
d.setName(data[NAME_OF_DOG]);
d.setNameOfOwner(data[NAME_OF_OWNER]);

But the class does not look nicer if I put about 40 such declarations in it. So I tried an enum:

public enum CsvDescription {NAME_OF_DOG(143), NAME_OF_OWNER(198); /* ... */}

Accessing the array now is even more complicated and does not bring more clarity to my code. It looks "bloated" instead:

d.setName(data[CsvDescription.NAME_OF_DOG.ordinal()]);

And using the ordinal()-method might not be the idea of using enums. So using enums seems to be the wrong way.

Does anyone have an idea how I can seperate the code of my factory-method from the description of the array?

Thank you!