Question

What if I’ll use switch in getByIntValue()? Is it really neccessary to use a SparseArray?

public enum Gender {
    Unknown(0),
    Male(1),
    Female(2);

    private static final SparseArray<Gender> lookupTable = new SparseArray<Gender>();
    static {
        for (final Gender gender : EnumSet.allOf(Gender.class)) {
            lookupTable.put(gender.intValue, gender);
        }
    }

    private final int intValue;

    public static Gender getByIntValue(int val) {
        return lookupTable.get(val);
    }

    private Gender(int intValue) {
        this.intValue = intValue;
    }

    public int getIntValue() {
        return intValue;
    }
}

Answer 1

Since your int values go from 0 to 2, without hole, you could indeed simply use an array. A switch would also be fine, although it would probably be slightly slower than an array lookup. But unless you call the method billions of times, it won’t make any noticeable difference. Use what you find the clearest and easiest to understand and maintain.