java: cannot find symbol symbol: variable POST

Question

I have below logic in my Java code

switch (method) {
    case POST:
        // Logic
        break;
    case PUT:
        // Logic
        break;
}

This logic is working when I'm using spring-web version as 5.3.22. I'm getting below issue when I'm using spring-web version as 6.0.2. Please suggest

Answer 1

The problem is that up to Spring version 5.3.x, HttpMethod used to be an enum ( https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/blob/5.3.x/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/HttpMethod.java#L33 ):

 public enum HttpMethod {

But they changed in in Spring Version 6.x to a "normal" class ( https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/blob/main/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/HttpMethod.java#L37 ):

 public final class HttpMethod implements Comparable<HttpMethod>, Serializable {

The reason for this change is given as

Refactor HTTP Method from Enum to Class

This commit refactors HttpMethod from a Java enum into a class. The underlying reason being that HTTP methods are not enumerable, but instead an open range and not limited to the predefined values in the specifications.

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While you can use enum constants in a switch statement, you cannot use instances of normal classes.

Therefore if you want to use Spring version 6.x you must rewrite your switch(method) to an if () - else if () chain or use specific request mappings for the different methods.