What is the difference between Enum name and Enum toString

Question

After reading the documentation of String java lang Enum name   I am not sure I understand when to use name   and when to use toString        Returns the name of this enum constant  exactly as declared in its enum declaration  Most programmers should use the toString method in preference to this one  as the toString method may return a more user-friendly name  This method is designed primarily for use in specialized situations where correctness depends on getting the exact name  which will not vary from release to release    In particular  even though the documentation says to prefer toString    Java s own StandardLocation enumeration uses name when I would have thought the documentation suggested otherwise   public String getName     return name        Furthermore Enum implements toString   as   public String toString         return name      and I cannot think of a situation where a user defined enumeration would overwrite toString   so name   and toString   are almost always exactly the same    Can you please explain why ignoring the documentation and always using name   is a bad idea  What about the phrase  will not vary from release to release   If name will not vary  does it imply that java lang Enum toString   would

User · Answer

Use toString when you need to display the name to the user   Use name when you need the name for your program itself  e g  to identify and differentiate between different enum values

User · Answer

Use toString   when you want to present information to a user  including a developer looking at a log   Never rely in your code on toString   giving a specific value  Never test it against a specific string  If your code breaks when someone correctly changes the toString   return  then it was already broken   If you need to get the exact name used to declare the enum constant  you should use name   as toString may have been overridden

User · Answer

The main difference between name   and toString   is that name   is a final method  so it cannot be overridden  The toString   method returns the same value that name   does by default  but toString   can be overridden by subclasses of Enum    Therefore  if you need the name of the field itself  use name    If you need a string representation of the value of the field  use toString     For instance   public enum WeekDay       MONDAY  TUESDAY  WEDNESDAY  THURSDAY  FRIDAY       public String toString             return name   charAt 0    name   substring 1  toLowerCase              In this example   WeekDay MONDAY name   returns  MONDAY   and WeekDay MONDAY toString   returns  Monday    WeekDay valueOf WeekDay MONDAY name    returns WeekDay MONDAY  but WeekDay valueOf WeekDay MONDAY toString    throws an IllegalArgumentException

[java] What is the difference between `Enum.name()` and `Enum.toString()`?

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