Java Sorting based on Enum constants

Question

We have an enum

enum listE {     LE1,     LE4,     LE2,     LE3 } 

Furthermore, we have a list that contains the strings ["LE1","LE2","LE3","LE4"]. Is there a way to sort the list based on the enum defined order (not the natural String order).

The sorted list should be ["LE1", "LE4", "LE2", "LE3"].

Answer 1

Enum<E> implements Comparable<E> via the natural order of the enum (the order in which the values are declared). If you just create a list of the enum values (instead of strings) via parsing, then sort that list using Collections.sort, it should sort the way you want. If you need a list of strings again, you can just convert back by calling name() on each element.

Answer 2

values() method returns in the order in which it is defined.

enum Test{   A,B,X,D }  for(Test t: Test.values()){   System.out.println(t); } 

Output

A B X D