Question

I have items in a list which can have a severity level ( those levels are: info,warning,error,delay,…)

I want to program this in a OOP way so that I can add more severity levels easily if needed.
It’s been a while since I have used Java so I’m not sure how to do it the right way.

What I have is:

    Public class ListItem
    {
       int sev; 
       String name;
       public ListItem(String name, int s)
       {
          this.name = name; this.sev = s;
       }
       ...
    }

A severity should have an integer (like ‘1’) and just a name (like ‘information’)

I’d like to ‘predefine’ severities like:

public static final int WARNING = 1;
public static final int ERROR = 2;

But then, how can I display the name ‘WARNING’ when ‘1’ is given as severity to list item?
Am I having the best approach?

Thanks,

Answer 1

You should use an enum instead of constants:

enum Level {
   INFO, WARNING, ERROR;
}

You can print the Level using toString()

Level level = Level.INFO;
System.out.println(level.toString());

prints

INFO

Changing to ListItem(String name, Level level) has the advantage of preventing you from creating a ListItem with an int value that isn’t defined as a valid level.