Pass generic type parameter class as argument

Question

Suppose I have a method

public <T extends Enum<T>> Enum<T> getEnumValue(String string, ??)

And another method, in a different class,

public T method(String string)
  ...
  getEnumValue(string, ??)

What would I pass from method 2 as the argument to method 1 so that I can get the enum value, ie in my fantasy world I could just do:

method 2:

getEnumValue(string, T.class)

method 1:

getEnumValue(String string, Class<T> clazz)
  return Enum.valueOf(clazz, string)

Answer 1

There is no way to do this due to type erasure. You must pass the explicit Class<T> , or enough information to recover it (eg the name as a String that you can pass to Class.forName , or an instance of T ).

Answer 2

EnumClass.getEnumConstants()

It's in java.lang.Class not java.lang.Enum . Use your EnumClass.VALUE.cardinal() to index this array.

If you insist to call on String name, you can do

EnumClass.getEnumConstants()[0].valueOf(stringValue)

This is to call static method on instance and you probably receive compiler warning but it works.