How to get an enum value from a string value in Java?

Question

Say I have an enum which is just

public enum Blah {
    A, B, C, D
}

and I would like to find the enum value of a string, for example

Answer 1

Use the pattern from Joshua Bloch, Effective Java:

(simplified for brevity)

enum MyEnum {
    ENUM_1("A"),
    ENUM_2("B");

    private String name;

    private static final Map ENUM_MAP;

    MyEnum (String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return this.name;
    }

    // Build an immutable map of String name to enum pairs.
    // Any Map impl can be used.

    static {
        Map map = new ConcurrentHashMap();
        for (MyEnum instance : MyEnum.values()) {
            map.put(instance.getName(),instance);
        }
        ENUM_MAP = Collections.unmodifiableMap(map);
    }

    public static MyEnum get (String name) {
        return ENUM_MAP.get(name);
    }
}

Also see:

Oracle Java Example using Enum and Map of instances

Execution order of of static blocks in an Enum type

How can I lookup a Java enum from its String value