Comparing the advantages and disadvantages of several Java enumeration lookup implementations that do not throw exceptions

Introduction

Java Enum is a very useful feature, but many people usually do not take full advantage of it because some libraries do not prioritize this feature. Usually we can also use the Java enumeration function correctly, but there is often such a problem in many code bases, so this article is written. The question is simple: how should we get an enum by name or value and ignore non-existent values?

enumerate

This is the enum we will use in our examples. The more complex enumeration is picked so that the lookup enumeration can also be represented by other fields.

public enum CardColor {
    RED,
    BLACK,
    ;
}
// Jackson annotation to print the enum as an Object instead of the default name.
@JsonFormat(shape = JsonFormat.Shape.OBJECT)
public enum CardSuit {
    // Unicode suits - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_cards_in_Unicode
    SPADE("Spade", String.valueOf((char) 0x2660), CardColor.BLACK),
    HEART("Heart", String.valueOf((char) 0x2665), CardColor.RED),
    DIAMOND("Diamond", String.valueOf((char) 0x2666), CardColor.RED),
    CLUB("Club", String.valueOf((char) 0x2663), CardColor.BLACK),
    ;
    private String displayName;
    private String symbol;
    private CardColor color;
    private CardSuit(String displayName, String symbol, CardColor color) {
        this.displayName = displayName;
        this.symbol =  symbol;
        this.color = color;
    }
    public String getDisplayName() {
        return displayName;
    }
    public void setDisplayName(String displayName) {
        this.displayName = displayName;
    }
    public String getSymbol() {
        return symbol;
    }
    public void setSymbol(String symbol) {
        this.symbol = symbol;
    }
    public CardColor getColor() {
        return color;
    }
    public void setColor(CardColor color) {
        this.color = color;
    }

View on GitHub.

question

Using Enum.valueOf is great when you know the input is valid. However, if an invalid name is passed in, an exception will be thrown. In some cases, this is fine. In general, though, we'd rather ignore the exception and return null.

log.debug("Running valueOf");
for (String name : names) {
    try {
        log.debug("looking up {} found {}", name, Json.serializer().toString(CardSuit.valueOf(name)));
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        log.warn("Exception Thrown", ex);
    }
}

2017-02-22 14:46:38.556 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - Running valueOf
2017-02-22 14:46:38.804 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up SPADE found {"displayName":"Spade","symbol":"♠","color":"BLACK"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.806 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up HEART found {"displayName":"Heart","symbol":"♥","color":"RED"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.806 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up DIAMOND found {"displayName":"Diamond","symbol":"♦","color":"RED"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.806 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up CLUB found {"displayName":"Club","symbol":"♣","color":"BLACK"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.808 [main] WARN  c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - Exception Thrown
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: No enum constant com.stubbornjava.examples.common.EnumLookup.CardSuit.Missing
  at java.lang.Enum.valueOf(Enum.java:238)
  at com.stubbornjava.examples.common.EnumLookup$CardSuit.valueOf(EnumLookup.java:1)
  at com.stubbornjava.examples.common.EnumLookup.main(EnumLookup.java:154)

Poor implementation

Unfortunately, the following two methods appear so frequently in the code base. Don’t learn from negative examples.

Enum.valueOf With Try Catch (bad)

This poor practice is most common among beginners. Exceptions should not be used for control flow, and there may be some performance impact. Don't be lazy. You have to do it the right way.

/*
 * Please don't do this! Using try / catch for
 * control flow is a bad practice.
 */
public static CardSuit trycatchValueOf(String name) {
    try {
        return CardSuit.valueOf(name);
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        log.warn("Exception Thrown", ex);
        return null;
    }
}

log.debug("Running trycatchValueOf");
for (String name : names) {
    log.debug("looking up {} found {}", name, Json.serializer().toString(CardSuit.trycatchValueOf(name)));
}

2017-02-22 14:46:38.809 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - Running trycatchValueOf
2017-02-22 14:46:38.809 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up SPADE found {"displayName":"Spade","symbol":"♠","color":"BLACK"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.809 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up HEART found {"displayName":"Heart","symbol":"♥","color":"RED"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.809 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up DIAMOND found {"displayName":"Diamond","symbol":"♦","color":"RED"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.809 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up CLUB found {"displayName":"Club","symbol":"♣","color":"BLACK"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.809 [main] WARN  c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - Exception Thrown
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: No enum constant com.stubbornjava.examples.common.EnumLookup.CardSuit.Missing
  at java.lang.Enum.valueOf(Enum.java:238)
  at com.stubbornjava.examples.common.EnumLookup$CardSuit.valueOf(EnumLookup.java:1)
  at com.stubbornjava.examples.common.EnumLookup$CardSuit.trycatchValueOf(EnumLookup.java:89)
  at com.stubbornjava.examples.common.EnumLookup.main(EnumLookup.java:171)
2017-02-22 14:46:38.809 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up Missing found null

Find by iteration (bad)

This method is also very common (see here), but at least programmers know that try/catch cannot be used to catch exceptions. So, what's wrong with this approach? That's right, it iterates through all enumerations until it finds a matching enumeration or returns null - n times in the worst case, where n is the number of enumeration values. Some might think this is trivial and just premature optimization. However, data structures and algorithms are the basis of CS. It's much less laborious to use a Map instead of iterating over a collection. Will this significantly improve performance? No, but it's a good habit to get into. When interviewing candidates, would you feel comfortable with a linear complexity search algorithm? At this point, you should not let such a code review pass.

/*
 * Please don't do this! It is inefficient and it's
 * not very hard to use Guava or a static Map as an index.
 */
public static CardSuit iterationFindByName(String name) {
    for (CardSuit suit : CardSuit.values()) {
        if (name.equals(suit.name())) {
            return suit;
        }
    }
    return null;
}

log.debug("Running iteration");
for (String name : names) {
    log.debug("looking up {} found {}", name, Json.serializer().toString(CardSuit.iterationFindByName(name)));
}

2017-02-22 14:46:38.808 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - Running iteration
2017-02-22 14:46:38.809 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up SPADE found {"displayName":"Spade","symbol":"♠","color":"BLACK"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.809 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up HEART found {"displayName":"Heart","symbol":"♥","color":"RED"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.809 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up DIAMOND found {"displayName":"Diamond","symbol":"♦","color":"RED"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.809 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up CLUB found {"displayName":"Club","symbol":"♣","color":"BLACK"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.809 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up Missing found null

Better implementation

The following can all work by using indexes in Map form. However, there are some subtle differences between them.

Static Map Index (better)

What is the correct data structure for fast lookup of fixed size? That is HashMap. Now with some extra boilerplate, we can do more efficient lookups provided we have a good hash function. Slightly more verbose, but it would be great if there was a way to reduce the boilerplate.

private static final Map<String, CardSuit> nameIndex =
        Maps.newHashMapWithExpectedSize(CardSuit.values().length);
static {
    for (CardSuit suit : CardSuit.values()) {
        nameIndex.put(suit.name(), suit);
    }
}
public static CardSuit lookupByName(String name) {
    return nameIndex.get(name);
}

log.debug("Running lookupByName");
for (String name : names) {
    log.debug("looking up {} found {}", name, Json.serializer().toString(CardSuit.lookupByName(name)));
}

2017-02-22 14:46:38.809 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - Running lookupByName
2017-02-22 14:46:38.809 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up SPADE found {"displayName":"Spade","symbol":"♠","color":"BLACK"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.810 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up HEART found {"displayName":"Heart","symbol":"♥","color":"RED"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.810 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up DIAMOND found {"displayName":"Diamond","symbol":"♦","color":"RED"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.813 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up CLUB found {"displayName":"Club","symbol":"♣","color":"BLACK"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.813 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up Missing found null

Guava Enums.getIfPresent (recommended)

This is a common use case, and our friends at Google have a very clean and boilerplate-free solution for it. Looking under the hood, it even uses WeakReferences and WeakHashMaps. Basically, this code will create a global static map typed in the Enum class name and use it for lookups.

public static CardSuit getIfPresent(String name) {
    return Enums.getIfPresent(CardSuit.class, name).orNull();
}

log.debug("Running Guava getIfPresent");
for (String name : names) {
    log.debug("looking up {} found {}", name, Json.serializer().toString(CardSuit.getIfPresent(name)));
}

2017-02-22 14:46:38.813 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - Running Guava getIfPresent
2017-02-22 14:46:38.814 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up SPADE found {"displayName":"Spade","symbol":"♠","color":"BLACK"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.814 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up HEART found {"displayName":"Heart","symbol":"♥","color":"RED"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.815 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up DIAMOND found {"displayName":"Diamond","symbol":"♦","color":"RED"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.815 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up CLUB found {"displayName":"Club","symbol":"♣","color":"BLACK"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.815 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up Missing found null

Further indexing by fields

This exact same method can be used for other fields of the enumeration. It's not uncommon to want to find an enumeration by its displayed name or other properties.

Static Map through field index (better)

Same method as above, but indexing on the display name instead of the enum name.

private static final Map<String, CardSuit> displayNameIndex =
        Maps.newHashMapWithExpectedSize(CardSuit.values().length);
static {
    for (CardSuit suit : CardSuit.values()) {
        displayNameIndex.put(suit.getDisplayName(), suit);
    }
}
public static CardSuit lookupByDisplayName(String name) {
    return displayNameIndex.get(name);
}

log.debug("Running lookupByDisplayName");
for (String displayName : displayNames) {
    log.debug("looking up {} found {}", displayName, Json.serializer().toString(CardSuit.lookupByDisplayName(displayName)));
}

2017-02-22 14:46:38.815 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - Running lookupByDisplayName
2017-02-22 14:46:38.815 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up Spade found {"displayName":"Spade","symbol":"♠","color":"BLACK"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.815 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up Heart found {"displayName":"Heart","symbol":"♥","color":"RED"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.815 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up Diamond found {"displayName":"Diamond","symbol":"♦","color":"RED"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.816 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up Club found {"displayName":"Club","symbol":"♣","color":"BLACK"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.816 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up Missing found null

Static Map through field index (better)

We cannot leverage Guava here because creating a unique global key for a static index would be difficult. But, that doesn’t mean we don’t have help!

public class EnumUtils {
    public static <T, E extends Enum<E>> Function<T, E> lookupMap(Class<E> clazz, Function<E, T> mapper) {
        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
        E[] emptyArray = (E[]) Array.newInstance(clazz, 0);
        return lookupMap(EnumSet.allOf(clazz).toArray(emptyArray), mapper);
    }
    public static <T, E extends Enum<E>> Function<T, E> lookupMap(E[] values, Function<E, T> mapper) {
        Map<T, E> index = Maps.newHashMapWithExpectedSize(values.length);
        for (E value : values) {
            index.put(mapper.apply(value), value);
        }
        return (T key) -> index.get(key);
    }
}

Now we have a general solution that has little to do with boilerplate.

private static final Function<String, CardSuit> func =
        EnumUtils.lookupMap(CardSuit.class, e -> e.getDisplayName());
public static CardSuit lookupByDisplayNameUtil(String name) {
    return func.apply(name);
}

log.debug("Running lookupByDisplayNameUtil");
for (String displayName : displayNames) {
    log.debug("looking up {} found {}", displayName, Json.serializer().toString(CardSuit.lookupByDisplayNameUtil(displayName)));
}

2017-02-22 14:46:38.816 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - Running lookupByDisplayNameUtil
2017-02-22 14:46:38.816 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up Spade found {"displayName":"Spade","symbol":"♠","color":"BLACK"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.816 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up Heart found {"displayName":"Heart","symbol":"♥","color":"RED"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.816 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up Diamond found {"displayName":"Diamond","symbol":"♦","color":"RED"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.816 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up Club found {"displayName":"Club","symbol":"♣","color":"BLACK"}
2017-02-22 14:46:38.816 [main] DEBUG c.s.examples.common.EnumLookup - looking up Missing found null

in conclusion

There are several methods here that can be used to solve the same problem. Some are bad, some are better.

English original text: Java Enum Lookup by Name or Field Without Throwing Exceptions

Translation author: MaNong.com – Xiaofeng

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