Java Enums and Switch Statements - the default case?

Question

You could always use the Enum with Visitor pattern:

enum Mode {
  on {
      public <E> E accept( ModeVisitor<E> visitor ) {
         return visitor.visitOn();
      }
  },
  off {
      public <E> E accept( ModeVisitor<E> visitor ) {
         return visitor.visitOff();
      }
  },
  standby {
      public <E> E accept( ModeVisitor<E> visitor ) {
         return visitor.visitStandby();
      }
  }

  public abstract <E> E accept( ModeVisitor<E> visitor );

  public interface ModeVisitor<E> {
      E visitOn();
      E visitOff();
      E visitStandby();
  }
}

Then you would implement something like the following:

public final class ModeColorVisitor implements ModeVisitor<Color> {
    public Color visitOn() {
       return getOnColor();
    }

    public Color visitOff() {
       return getOffColor();
    }

    public Color visitStandby() {
       return getStandbyColor();
    }

}

You'd use it as follows:

return model.getMode().accept( new ModeColorVisitor() );

This is a lot more verbose but you'd immediately get a compile error if a new enum was declared.

You have to enable in Eclipse (window -> preferences) settings "Enum type constant not covered in switch" with Error level.

Throw an exception at the end of the method, but don't use default case.

public String method(Foo foo)
  switch(foo) {
  case x: return "x";
  case y: return "y";
  }

  throw new IllegalArgumentException();
}

Now if someone adds new case later, Eclipse will make him know he's missing a case. So don't ever use default unless you have really good reasons to do so.

I don't know why you get this error, but here is a suggestion, Why don't you define the color in the enum itself? Then you can't accidentally forget to define a new color.

For example:

import java.awt.Color;

public class Test {

    enum Mode 
    {
        on (Color.BLACK), 
        off (Color.RED),
        standby (Color.GREEN);

        private final Color color; 
        Mode (Color aColor) { color = aColor; }
        Color getColor() { return color; }
    }

    class Model
    {
        private Mode mode;
        public Mode getMode () { return mode; }
    }

    private Model model;

    public Color getColor()
    {
        return model.getMode().getColor();
    }   
}

btw, for comparison here is the original case, with compiler error.

import java.awt.Color;
public class Test {

    enum Mode {on, off, standby;}

    class Model
    {
        private Mode mode;
        public Mode getMode () { return mode; }
    }

    private Model model;

    public Color getColor()
    {
        switch(model.getMode()) {
        case on:
           return Color.BLACK;
        case off:
           return Color.RED;
        case standby:
           return Color.GREEN;
        }
    }   
}

I'd say it's probably because model.GetMode() could return null.