Question

I have this enum:

public enum Direction {
    LEFT,
    RIGHT,
    ABOVE,
    BELOW
}

Can I get and set a Direction variable that contains 2 or more values, for example:

Direction fromDirection = Direction.LEFT + Direction.ABOVE

If it’s possible, please tell me how to achieve it.

Answer 1

You could use a java.util.EnumSet:

final Set<Direction> northEast = EnumSet<Direction>.of(Direction.NORTH, Direction.EAST);

Of course, you could use any other set implementation, but EnumSet types are implemented as bit vectors, very space and time efficient and probably the best built-in facility for your goal.

You may also want to define a static method in the enum type which checks for valid combinations.