Java enums in generic type

Question

Hi, I'd like to create a generic enum-based mapper for IBatis. I'm doing this with the below code. This does have compile time errors, which I don't know how to fix. Maybe my solution is just plain wrong (keep in mind the use of IBatis), in such case please suggest something better.

Any help appreciated.

What I want to achieve is to define subsequent mappers as:

public class XEnumTypeHandler extends CommonEnumTypeHandler<X> {
}

The current code:

public class CommonEnumTypeHandler<T extends Enum> implements TypeHandlerCallback {

 public void setParameter(ParameterSetter ps, Object o) throws SQLException {
  if (o.getClass().isAssignableFrom(**T**)) { 
   ps.setString(((**T**) o).value().toUpperCase());
  } else
   throw new SQLException("Excpected ParameterType object than: " + o);
 }

 public Object getResult(ResultGetter rs) throws SQLException {
  Object o = valueOf(rs.getString());
  if (o == null)
   throw new SQLException("Unknown parameter type: " + rs.getString());
  return o;
 }

 public Object valueOf(String s) {
  for (T pt : T.**values()**) {
   if (pt.**value()**.equalsIgnoreCase(s))
    return pt;
  }
  return null;
 }
}

I've added error markings to the above code, the error messages are in order:

• T cannot be resolved
• The method value() is undefined for the type T
• The method values() is undefined for the type T
• The method values() is undefined for the type T

I've solved this issue with the following code:

public class CommonEnumTypeHandler<T extends Enum> implements TypeHandlerCallback {

    Class<T> clazz;

    public CommonEnumTypeHandler(Class<T> clazz) {
        this.clazz = clazz;
    }

    public void setParameter(ParameterSetter ps, Object o) throws SQLException {
        if (o.getClass().isAssignableFrom(clazz)) {
            ps.setString(((T) o).name().toUpperCase());
        } else
            throw new SQLException("Excpected " + clazz + " object than: " + o);
    }

    public Object getResult(ResultGetter rs) throws SQLException {
        Object o = valueOf(rs.getString());
        if (o == null)
            throw new SQLException("Unknown parameter type: " + rs.getString());
        return o;
    }

    public Object valueOf(String s) {
        return Enum.valueOf(clazz, s);
    }
}

Inheriting from this class I do:

public class SalesChannelTypeHandler extends CommonEnumTypeHandler<SalesChannel> {

    public SalesChannelTypeHandler() {
        super(SalesChannel.class);
    }

    public SalesChannelTypeHandler(Class<SalesChannel> clazz) {
        super(clazz);
    }

}

Answer 1

I'm not sure what you're doing (a general overview in words would be nice), but:

• You can't do isAssignableFrom(T) (you need a Class object), and you can't do instanceof T either (generics are non-reified). You may want to pass Class<T> type tokens instead.
• Have you looked at EnumMap?

See also

• Java Tutorials/Runtime Type Tokens
• Neal Gafter's Blog - Super Type Tokens
• Josh Bloch - Typesafe Heterogenous Container (THC) pattern (PDF)

---

It's still not clear what is desired, but perhaps it's something along the lines of this:

enum Color { BLACK, WHITE; }

public static void main(String[] args) {
    Color c = Enum.valueOf(Color.class, "black".toUpperCase());
    System.out.println(c); // prints "BLACK"
}

So we use Enum.valueOf that takes a type token Class<T extends Enum<T>>, and ask it for the enum constant with a given name. valueOf is NOT case-insensitive, but by conventions, all constants should be in uppercase, so we simply take the query string and turn it .toUpperCase().

Answer 2

As pointed by Polygenelubricants, you need to pass concrete runtime types around, e.g. Class<?> instead of syntactic compiletime types like generic parameters. Here's a rewrite how you could use it:

public abstract class CommonEnumTypeHandler<E extends Enum<E>> implements TypeHandlerCallback {
    private Class<E> enumClass;

    public CommonEnumTypeHandler(Class<E> enumClass) {
        this.enumClass = enumClass;
    }

    public void setParameter(ParameterSetter ps, Object o) throws SQLException {
        if (enumClass.isInstance(o)) {
            ps.setString((enumClass.cast(o)).name().toUpperCase());
        } else {
            throw new SQLException("Excpected ParameterType object than: " + o);
        }
    }

    public Object getResult(ResultGetter rs) throws SQLException {
        try {
            return Enum.valueOf(enumClass, rs.getString());
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
            throw new SQLException("Unknown parameter type: " + rs.getString(), e);
        }
    }
}

Which you can then use as follows:

public class XEnumTypeHandler extends CommonEnumTypeHandler<X> {
    public XEnumTypeHandler() {
        super(X.class);
    }
}