How to use a bitwise operator to pass multiple Integer values into a function for Java?

Question

In application frameworks I keep seeing frameworks that allow you to pass in multiple Int values (generally used in place of an enum) into a function.

For example:

public class Example
{ 
    public class Values
    {
        public static final int ONE = 0x7f020000;
        public static final int TWO = 0x7f020001;
        public static final int THREE = 0x7f020002;
        public static final int FOUR = 0x7f020003;
        public static final int FIVE = 0x7f020004;
    }

    public static void main(String [] args)
    {
        // should evaluate just Values.ONE
        Example.multiValueExample(Values.ONE);

        // should evalueate just values Values.ONE,  Values.THREE, Values.FIVE
        Example.multiValueExample(Values.ONE | Values.THREE | Values.FIVE);

        // should evalueate just values Values.TWO , Values.FIVE
        Example.multiValueExample(Values.TWO | Values.FIVE);
    }

    public static void multiValueExample(int values){
        // Logic that properly evaluates bitwise values
        ...
    }
}

So what logic should exist in multiValueExample for me to properly evaluate multiple int values being passed in using the bitwise operator?

Answer 1

Your values should be powers of 2.

That way, you don't lose any information when you bitwise-OR them.

public static final int ONE   = 0x01;
public static final int TWO   = 0x02;
public static final int THREE = 0x04;
public static final int FOUR  = 0x08;
public static final int FIVE  = 0x10;

etc.

Then you can do this:

public static void main(String [] args) {
    Example.multiValueExample(Values.ONE | Values.THREE | Values.FIVE);
}

public static void multiValueExample(int values){
    if ((values & Values.ONE) == Values.ONE) {
    }

    if ((values & Values.TWO) == Values.TWO) {
    }

    // etc.
}

Answer 2

As was already mentioned, consider use of enums instead of bit values.

According to Effective Java 2: "Item 32: Use EnumSet instead of bit fields"

Usage of EnumSet is quite effective for memory usage and very convenient.

Here is an example:

package enums;

import java.util.EnumSet;
import java.util.Set;

public class Example {
  public enum Values {
    ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // should evaluate just Values.ONE
    Example.multiValueExample(EnumSet.of(Values.ONE));

    // should evalueate just values Values.ONE, Values.THREE, Values.FIVE
    Example.multiValueExample(EnumSet.of(Values.ONE, Values.THREE, Values.FIVE));

    // should evalueate just values Values.TWO , Values.FIVE
    Example.multiValueExample(EnumSet.of(Values.TWO, Values.FIVE));
  }

  public static void multiValueExample(Set<Values> values) {
    if (values.contains(Values.ONE)) {
      System.out.println("One");
    }

    // Other checks here...

    if (values.contains(Values.FIVE)) {
      System.out.println("Five");
    }
  }
}

Answer 3

You setup the integer values to be powers of two so that each enumerated value is a single bit in the binary representation.

int ONE = 0x1;    //0001
int TWO = 0x2;    //0010
int THREE = 0x4;  //0100
int FOUR = 0x8;   //1000

Then you use bit-wise OR to combine values and bitwise AND to test set values.

int test_value = (ONE | FOUR);   //-> 1001
bool has_one = (test_value & ONE) != 0;  //-> 1001 & 0001 -> 0001 -> true