Naming the boolean elements in a Java boolean array

Question

I'm stuck on a simple thing. I have an array of booleans named "tags." It's important to me to be able to access each element of the array by boolean:

public boolean energetic, calming, happy, sad;
public boolean[] trackTags = {energetic, calming, happy, sad};

I pass in and assign boolean values to the trackTags array (let's say [true, true, true, false]. So, when I call trackTags[0], I get "true." However, when I print "energetic," - which should be the same as trackTags[0], the value is always false. I know booleans initialize false, but when I switch some values in the trackTags Array for "true," shouldn't the named elements change as well?

Second question: what's a good way for me to interact with boolean variable names? Specifically, if I pass in a String[] [happy, sad], and then want to switch only the boolean[] values corresponding to names in my String array, is this feasible? I have no trouble looping through the elements of both arrays, but I obviously can't compare a string to a boolean value.

All in all, is there a better way to interact with boolean names? I'm really confused about this.

Answer 1

It sounds more like you want something like a Map. This will allow you to effectively name the values by mapping the name as a key to a value.

Example

Map<String, Boolean> trackTags = new HashMap<String, Boolean>();

trackTags.put("energetic", false);

NOTE

Just for good code readability, I'd also put the names in some final fields..

public static final String ENERGETIC = "energetic";

and access it like this..

trackTags.get(ENERGETIC);

That way if you need to change the name, you change it in one place and not all over the show.