Question

I have in mind an interface which declares a method for converting a raw score from a survey to a percentile value for a particular category, where the categories are described by more than one otherwise unrelated enum types. So I started with this:

public interface NormTable<E extends Enum<E>> {
    Integer percentileForRawScore(E e, int score);
}

I’ve then got an implementing class for, say, the Foo survey and its Subscale enum:

public class FooSubscaleNormTable implements NormTable<Subscale> {
    public Integer percentileForRawScore(Subscale e, int score) {
        // Implementation
    }
}

And finally, a factory class for creating the appropriate concrete class:

public class NormTableFactory {
    public static <E extends Enum<E>> NormTable<E> normTableForSurveyAndType(
        String surveyCode, Class<E> clazz) {
    if ("Foo".equals(surveyCode) && Subscale.class.equals(clazz)) {
        return (NormTable<E>) new FooSubscaleNormTable();
    } else {
            // ...
        }
    }
}

I suspect the cast there is wrong, as Eclipse flags it as unchecked, though lets me carry on. The Java 1.6 compiler on the build server, however, is not happy at all and flags them as inconvertible types.

Have I got the signatures in the factory class wrong, or is my whole architecture looking suspect? I note above that the enum types are “otherwise unrelated”, though they all represent categories within surveys, and could conceivably implement an interface to unify their types. Would that help?

Answer 1

You shouldn’t use a concrete Enum class in your declaring type.

Make FooSubscaleNormTable generic as well

public class FooSubscaleNormTable<E extends Enum<E>> implements NormTable<E> {
    public Integer percentileForRawScore(E e, int score) {
       if(e instanceof Subscale) {
           switch((Subscale) e) {
           case X:
           // do something
           break;
           }
       }
       // return 0; 
    }
}

and change your factory to

public class NormTableFactory {
    public static <E extends Enum<E>> NormTable<E> normTableForSurveyAndType(
        String surveyCode, Class<E> clazz) {
    if ("Foo".equals(surveyCode) && Subscale.class.equals(clazz)) {
        return (NormTable<E>) new FooSubscaleNormTable<E>();
    } else {
            // whatever else
        }
    }
}

Then when you invoke it, that is when you pass in your desired enum type.

NormTable<Subscale> scale = NormTableFactory.normTableForSurveyAndType("surveyCode", Subscale.class);