Should i pass an enum as a parameter or pass its literal value

Question

i was thinking along the line when design some interfaces and classes whether i should be passing enum as a parameter or its literal value.

At this juncture, i am all for passing its literal value as i have read somewhere i could not remember about coupling issues passing the enum.

Does anyone have any opinion on this? :)

public enum Item{
CANDY("candy"), APPLE("apple");
}

1. Pass by enum

   public buy(Item item){}
   

2. Pass by literal value

   public buy(String itemValue){}
   

Cheers.

Answer 1

I would recommend passing the enum value as it is more strongly typed. In your example, if "candy" and "apple" are the only valid arguments to the 'buy' method, you can enforce that at compile time by requiring the enum rather than the String as the method argument.