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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-27T03:03:05+00:00

enum Animals{ DOG(woof), CAT(Meow), FISH(Burble); String sound; Animals(String s) { sound = s; }

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enum Animals{
    DOG("woof"),
    CAT("Meow"),
    FISH("Burble");

    String sound;

    Animals(String s) {
            sound = s;
    }
}
public class TestEnum{
    static Animals a;
    public static void main(String ab[]){
        System.out.println( a );
        System.out.println( a.DOG.sound + " " + a.FISH.sound);
    }
}

In the above example, why are we able to access instances of the enum (i.e. as a.DOG.sound) when a is null and enum is not declared as static?
Are the enum instances static by default?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Enums are implicitly public static final.

    You can refer to a.DOG because you may access static members through instance references, even when null: static resolution uses the reference type, not the instance.

    I wouldn’t; it’s misleading: convention favors type (not instance) static references.

    See JLS 6.5.6.2 regarding class variable via instances. See JLS 15.11 for why it still works with a null. Nutshell: it’s the reference type, not the instance, through which statics are resolved.

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