Setting an Enum value based on incoming String

Question

I have a number of setter methods which take an enum. These are based on incoming objects attribute. Rather than write a bunch of these is there a way around having to hard code

Answer 1

You can implement that functionality in your Enum.

public enum Side {

    BUY("B"), SELL("S"), ...

    private String letter;
    private Side(String letter) {
        this.letter = letter;
    }

    public static Side fromLetter(String letter) {
        for (side s : values() ){
            if (s.letter.equals(letter)) return s;
        }
        return null;
    }

}

You could also do this as a helper static method if you can't edit Side.

public static Side fromString(String from) {
    for (Side s: Side.values()) {
        if (s.toString().startsWith(from)) {
            return s;
        }
    }

    throw new IllegalArgumentException( from );
}

The above method assumes your strings correspond to the names of you enums.