Question

I was hoping to declare in Enum type in a subclass and then access it from the super class. This is what I came up with, but it does not work:

class Subclass {
 enum Pets {
  CAT,
  DOG;
 }

Class<Pets> getEnumClass() {
    return Pets.class;
 }
}

class Superclass  {
    // This generates a warning: 
abstract Class<? extends Enum> getEnumClass(); 
void PrintEnumNames() throws InstantiationException, IllegalAccessException {
Class<? extends Enum> enumClass = getEnumClass();

Enum newEnum = enumClass.newInstance();
 for( Enum iEnum : newEnum.values()) { // newEnum.values() isn't available
    System.out.printf("%s", iEnum.toString());
   }
 }
}

Answer 1

values() is a static method, you can’t call it on the instance. To get enum values from the class, use Class.getEnumConstants():

Class<? extends Enum> enumClass = getEnumClass(); 
for (Object o: enumClass.getEnumConstants())
    System.out.println(o);