How to have enum with a value of type Method

Question

I want to have a mapping between datatype and the methodname. As for a particular datatype a different method would be called. So, I want to store that in form of enum. How can I achieve it. For example for CHECKBOX type I want to call a method with the name checkboxsimilaity, how should I store store and access in the structure below.

public enum MethodNames{
    //CHECHBOX with the value checkboxsimilaity (of type method)
    public final Method name;

}

Answer 1

You may try to use functional interfaces to associate some functionality with enum values:

public enum ElementType {
    CHECKBOX(() -> {
        System.out.println("Select checkbox here or call needed method");
        return "selected";
    }),
    TEXT_FIELD(() -> {
        System.out.println("Type something into text field or call needed method");
        return "typed";
    });

    private Supplier<String> action;

    ElementType(Supplier<String> action) {
        this.action = action;
    }

    public String executeAssociatedAction() {
        return action.get();
    }
}

And you can do almost whatever you want there. The invoking will than be:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    ElementType.CHECKBOX.executeAssociatedAction();
}

Alternatively, you can have methods implemented somewhere else, have enum with a string as a parameter (which will be the method name) and use reflection to call a method with the corresponding name from the corresponding class.