Chapter 1 Question 8 Kathy & Bates book.

[Adil Fulara]

I had a doubt in the following question.

    
8. Given:
1. enum Animals {
2. DOG("woof"), CAT("meow"), FISH("burble");
3. String sound;
4. Animals(String s) { sound = s; }
5. }
6. class TestEnum {
7. static Animals a;
8. public static void main(String[] args) {
9. System.out.println(a.DOG.sound + " " + a.FISH.sound);
10. }
11. }
What is the result?
A. woof burble
B. Multiple compilation errors
C. Compilation fails due to an error on line 2
D. Compilation fails due to an error on line 3
E. Compilation fails due to an error on line 4
F. Compilation fails due to an error on line 9

I answered F but the correct answer is A.

The reason i chose F was because i thought enum variables are private and cannot be accessed directly.
Since no access modifier was specified for 'sound' variable, i thought line 9 would complain that the instance variable is not visible.

Could someone please explain why my line of reasoning is wrong. Are instance variables of enums public by default?

Thank you

[Chinmaya Chowdary]

Hi Adil.

The reason i chose F was because i thought enum variables are private and cannot be accessed directly.

Here variable 'sound' has default scope.

[Adil Fulara]

Thank you very much. Should have clicked in my head but didn't.

~Adil.

[Atwal Usha]

Hi,

Although Chinmaya has already made it clear still I would add a few lines to it. If no access specifier has been mentioned before a variable it does not mean that it will be private. By default the access specifier is Default which provides a package level access.