Check if enum exists in Java

Question

Is there anyway to check if an enum exists by comparing it to a given string? I can't seem to find any such function. I could just try to use the `valueOf` method and catch an exception but I'v been taught that catching runtime exceptions is not good practice. Anybody have any ideas?

Accepted Answer

I don't think there's a built-in way to do it without catching exceptions. You could instead use something like this:

```
public static MyEnum asMyEnum(String str) {
    for (MyEnum me : MyEnum.values()) {
        if (me.name().equalsIgnoreCase(str))
            return me;
    }
    return null;
}
```

Edit: As Jon Skeet notes, `values()` works by cloning a private backing array every time it is called. If performance is critical, you may want to call `values()` only once, cache the array, and iterate through that.

Also, if your enum has a huge number of values, Jon Skeet's map alternative is likely to perform better than any array iteration.

Check if enum exists in Java

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