Java enum: Return value other than String

Question

I can't find an answer to this question anywhere so I'm hoping someone can help me out. I'm expecting that what I am asking is not possible, but I wanted to confirm. First, an enum example...

public enum StatusCode {

    SUCCESS(0), GENERAL_ERROR(999), CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_ERROR(1337);

    private int statusCode;

    private StatusCode(int statusCode) {
        this.statusCode = statusCode;
    }

    public int getStatusCode() {
        return statusCode;
    }
}

As you can see, I am using this enum to force specific status codes. My question is this: Is there a way that I can reference StatusCode.SUCCESS and have it return the int value associated with it? Rather than get into too much detail about what I would like to do, take this example:

public String getStatusMessage(int statusCode) {
    // Map<Integer, String> that contains status messages
    // return String for key statusCode
}

In this example, the syntax for calling this method is getStatusMessage(StatusCode.SUCCESS.getStatusCode()) .

Is there a way to shorten this to getStatusMessage(StatusCode.SUCCESS) ?

I think the second way looks much cleaner and would make my code much more readable. Any ideas? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You mean like this?

public String getStatusMessage(StatusCode code) {
    int status = code.getStatusCode();
    String message = ...do stuff to get message :)
    return message;
}

Answer 2

Luckily for you, EnumMap exists just for that situation.

    private static final Map<StatusCode, String> mapMessage = 
                         new EnumMap<>(StatusCode.class);
    mapMessage.put(SUCCESS, "Success.");
    ...

You don't even need the method getStatusMessage , just call map.getMessage(SUCCESS) .

However maybe you would be better off adding a String message field within StatusMessage and calling the constructors like SUCCESS(0, "Success") and then adding a getter for the message.