Generating an array from enum values

Question

Let's say I have an enum as such:

public enum Fruit {
    APPLES("Apples"),
    BANANAS("Bananas"),
    PEAR("Pear"),
    ORANGE("Oranges");

    private final String string;

    Fruit(String string) {
        this.string = string;
    }
}

What would be the best way to generate a String[] array containing the string values of the enum, i.e. "Apples", "Bananas, "Pear", "Oranges"

I can think of a few ways but they could get messy and I'm wondering if there is a direct way to get these values.

Alvin L-B · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-11 18:03:06Z

8

Here's the shortest one I could come up with:

Arrays.stream(Fruit.values()).map(Fruit::getName).toArray(String[]::new);

Fruit.getName() would be a method returning the string field in the Enum

edited Mar 11, 2017 at 18:03

answered Mar 11, 2017 at 17:12

Alvin L-B

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3 Comments

Bevor Over a year ago

Upvote because of using Java8 syntax. This is the only up-to-date solution.

Andreas Over a year ago

I'd says that Arrays.stream(Fruit.values()) would be better than EnumSet.allOf(Fruit.class).stream(), being shorter and not requiring the creation of an EnumSet.

Alvin L-B Over a year ago

Good point, my mind instantly went for an EnumSet (as that's what I most commonly use) without thinking over other options. I have edited the answer.

mhasan · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-11 17:00:16Z

2

You may do something like this.

Arrays.toString(Fruit.values()).replaceAll("^.|.$", "").split(", ");

answered Mar 11, 2017 at 17:00

mhasan

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2 Comments

andrewDev15 Over a year ago

In my case there may be certain enum constants whose "name" string does not match the enum constant's name. So I wouldn't wanna do it as such.

Andreas Over a year ago

@andrewDev15 What "name" string? Did you mean the field called string? Is that supposed to be the "name"? You didn't show whether that field is returned by a getString(), getName(), or toString() method. Assuming the last, which is not a bad assumption given the name of the field, this code does what you want. Perhaps you show give better code in the question, if you want to clarify differently.

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