how can I lookup a Java enum from its string value?

Question

I would like to lookup an enum from its string value (or possibly any other value). I've tried the following code but it doesn't allow static in initialisers. Is there a simple way?

public enum Verbosity {
 BRIEF,
 NORMAL,
 FULL
 ;
 private static Map<String, Verbosity> stringMap = new HashMap<String, Verbosity>();
 private Verbosity() {
  stringMap.put(this.toString(), this);
 }
 public static Verbosity getVerbosity(String key) {
  return stringMap.get(key);
 }
};

Answer 1

And you can't use valueOf()?

Edit: Btw, there is nothing stopping you from using static { } in an enum.

Answer 2

You're close. For arbitrary values, try something like the following:

   public enum Day { 
        MONDAY("M"), TUESDAY("T"), WEDNESDAY("W"),
        THURSDAY("R"), FRIDAY("F"), SATURDAY("Sa"), SUNDAY("Su"), ;

        private final String abbreviation;
        // Reverse-lookup map for getting a day from an abbreviation
        private static final Map<String, Day> lookup = new HashMap<String, Day>();
        static {
            for (Day d : Day.values())
                lookup.put(d.getAbbreviation(), d);
        }

        private Day(String abbreviation) {
            this.abbreviation = abbreviation;
        }

        public String getAbbreviation() {
            return abbreviation;
        }

        public static Day get(String abbreviation) {
            return lookup.get(abbreviation);
        }
    }

Answer 3

Use the valueOf method switch is automatically created for each Enum.

Verbosity.valueOf("BRIEF") == Verbority.BRIEF

For arbitrary values start with:

public static Verbosity findByAbbr(String abbr){
    for(Verbosity v : values()){
        if( v.abbr().equals(abbr)){
            return v;
        }
    }
    return null;
}

And move on later to Map implementation if your profiler tells you to.

I know it's iterating over all the values, but with only 3 enum values it's hardly worth any other effort, in fact unless you have a lot of values I wouldn't bother with a Map it'll be fast enough.