I think the generated method needs to be listed in the class javadoc at least. I presume it throws an exception too (like the other valueOf) if the String can't be resolved to a constant, but no user is going to discover this fact through the documentation.
On Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 12:32 AM, Nick Williams < nicholas+open...@nicholaswilliams.net> wrote: > Oh, yea. Duh. I completely forgot about it being static, which of course > it would HAVE to be to be useful. Silly me. > > Maybe there's a new language feature in there somewhere. Abstract static > methods? ;-) > > Still, yes. I would recommend that the JavaDoc for the Enum class list the > signature and usage of any/all generated methods. > > Nick > > On Aug 17, 2013, at 12:28 AM, Eamonn McManus wrote: > > > The valueOf method in Enum subclasses is static, so Enum itself can't > > usefully declare it. But the description of the Enum class could say > > in text what the generated methods are, rather than referring the > > reader to the JLS without even a link. If you forget what the methods > > are you can always look in any enum, such as Thread.State > > <http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/Thread.State.html>, > > but you shouldn't have to. > > > > Éamonn > > > > > > 2013/8/16 Nick Williams <nicholas+open...@nicholaswilliams.net>: > >> That method doesn't exist in the actual java.lang.Enum base class. It > gets generated automatically when the enum is compiled and is part of the > compiled enum class, not part of the Enum base class. > >> > >> With that said, I don't disagree that it could use some documentation. > I've often wondered why java.lang.Enum didn't have the following method > definition: > >> > >> public abstract E valueOf(String name); > >> > >> That is essentially the method that all compiled enums implement, it's > just not actually specified as an abstract method on the base class. If it > were, then there could be JavaDoc for it. > >> > >> Nick > >> > >> On Aug 16, 2013, at 11:30 PM, Paul Benedict wrote: > >> > >>> I noticed this method is not listed in the Javadocs for 5/6/7/8 but > it's > >>> part of every enum. Is this an oversight or is there a good reason why > it's > >>> not documented? > >>> > >>> -- > >>> Cheers, > >>> Paul > >> > > -- Cheers, Paul
