java emun和int,Java：Enum vs. Int

When using flags in Java, I have seen two main approaches. One uses int values and a line of if-else statements. The other is to use enums and case-switch statements.

I was wondering if there was a difference in terms of memory usage and speed between using enums vs ints for flags?

解决方案

Both ints and enums can use both switch or if-then-else, and memory usage is also minimal for both, and speed is similar - there's no significant difference between them on the points you raised.

However, the most important difference is the type checking. Enums are checked, ints are not.

Consider this code:

public class SomeClass {

public static int RED = 1;

public static int BLUE = 2;

public static int YELLOW = 3;

public static int GREEN = 3; // sic

private int color;

public void setColor(int color) {

this.color = color;

}

}

While many clients will use this properly,

new SomeClass().setColor(SomeClass.RED);

There is nothing stopping them from writing this:

new SomeClass().setColor(999);

There are three main problems with using the public static final pattern:

The problem occurs at runtime, not compile time, so it's going to be more expensive to fix, and harder to find the cause

You have to write code to handle bad input - typically a if-then-else with a final else throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown color " + color); - again expensive

There is nothing preventing a collision of constants - the above class code will compile even though YELLOW and GREEN both have the same value 3

If you use enums, you address all these problems:

Your code won't compile unless you pass valid values in

No need for any special "bad input" code - the compiler handles that for you

Enum values are unique