Declare java enum with a String array

Question

I'm trying to declare an enum type based on data that I'm retrieving from a database. I have a method that returns a string array of all the rows in the table that I want to make into an enumerated type. Is there any way to construct an enum with an array?

This is what I tried, but from the way it looked in eclipse, it seemed like this just created a method by that name:

public enum ConditionCodes{
    Condition.getDescriptions();
}

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

You can't.

The values of an enum must be known at compile time. If you have anything else, then it's not an enum.

You could come rather close via an implementation that's similar to the old typesafe enums that were used before the Java language introduced support for this technique via the enum keyword. You could use those techniques but simply replace the static final fields with values read from the DB.

Answer 2

For your enum to be useful it has to be nailed down at compile time. Generating the enum from the database query would imply you expect to see new enum values at runtime. Even if you created a code generator to create your enum class on the fly using the database query, you wouldn't be able to reference those enum values in your code, which is the point of having them.