java enum receive values from string name

Question

I have enum like:

public enum Enum2 
{
 ONE,TWO,THREE;
}

I can list all values like:

public static void main(String... args)
{
 for (Enum2 e : Enum2.values()) 
 {
 System.out.println(e);
 }
}

Is it possible list values if I have only string name of Enum?

String enum_name="Enum2";

E.g. if in some logic like:

if (a>b) 
{
enum_name="EnumA";
} 
else
{
enum_name="EnumB";
}

And after I receive string name of enum - I can list all values.

Answer 1

Class<?> enumClazz = Class.forName("com.mycompany.Enum2");
for (Enum<?> e : ((Class<? extends Enum<?>>)enumClazz).getEnumConstants()) {
 System.out.println(e.name()); // The variable "e" would be Enum2.ONE, etc
}

Thank you @Harry for helping me get this right.

• Harry Joy: You need to cast it to (Class<? extends Enum<?>>)
• Harry Joy: output of run: Exception in thread "main" java.lang.Error: Unresolved compilation problem: Type mismatch: cannot convert from Class<capture#1-of ?> to Class<? extends Enum<?>>
• Tom Hawtin - tackline: I'd use asSubclass instead of the dodgy cast. (Actually, I'd try to avoid getting myself in a mess that requires reflection in the first place.)
• Bohemian: how would you use asSubClass? it accepts a Class instance as parameter, but we don't know what class it is. could you post a fragment here to show what you had in mind?

Answer 2

Your question is not much clear to be but this is what you may want to do

 Class<?> cls = Class.forName("EnumName");
 if (cls.isEnum()) {
 Field[] flds = cls.getDeclaredFields();
 //-- your logic for fields.
 }

You can use: Class.getEnumConstants(). For more see this.

• Bohemian: That answer :) class has a special method for enums
• Bohemian: +1 For your help :) (but not the answer, sorry... but it is wrong)

Answer 3

yes, with

Enum2.EnumA.toString();

• user102008: he does not know Enum2 at compile time