Question

given the following code…

private enum EventTypes {
    WORK, BREAK, WAIT, CLOSE, COMPLETE
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println("BREAK : " + EventTypes.BREAK);
    System.out.println(Arrays.asList(EventTypes.values()).contains("WORK"));
    System.out.println(Arrays.asList(EventTypes.values()).contains("WOR"));

}

This produces the output…

BREAK : BREAK
false
false

Now, from the output I can see “BREAK” exists as a String – so why does it believe “WORK” does not exist in the above enum?

Answer 1

Enum values aren’t strings. Do this :

Arrays.asList(EventTypes.values()).contains(EventTypes.WORK));

If you want to know if your string is the name of an enum value, do

boolean exist = false;
try {
    EventTypes.valueOf("WORK");
    exist = true; 
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {}