Re: Named fields in enum constant declarations

From:

Jim <jkorman@alltel.net>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.programmer

Date:

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:01:01 -0500

Message-ID:

<aj0du45ll6qmvhti85u6tvrm4qtdah6ro8@4ax.com>

On Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:56:37 -0700, Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org>
wrote:

In order to build a data visualization, I need to associate both an
arbitrary integer and a color with each of several conditions. Sounds
like a job for an enum. As currently written, I have unnamed Color
constructor calls as arguments in the enum constant declarations, e.g.

TRUE_POSITIVE(new Color(100, 255, 100))

I would prefer to replace that with something like:

TRUE_POSITIVE(LIGHT_GREEN)

but I don't know where to put the declaration:

private static final LIGHT_GREEN = new Color(100,255,100);

The enum syntax requires the enum constant declarations to be the first
thing in the body. They cannot forwards reference a field declaration.
The actual colors are naturally private to the enum - the rest of the
program just knows the fact that each enum constant has a method that
returns the associated color.

What am I missing? What is the right way to do this?

Patricia

Yet another method...Implement an Interface that defines the colors

public interface IColors {
   Color LIGHT_GREEN = new Color(100,255,100);
}

public enum Stuff implements IColors {

   TRUE_POSITIVE(LIGHT_GREEN);

   private Color thisColor;

   private Stuff(Color color) {
      thisColor = color;
   }
}

Jim