Best Way to Enumerate a non-unique Array of String to Integers

Question

Hello,
I am trying to find the best way to enumerate an array of strings to integers. This string array is thousands in number and contains non-unique values.
I also don't know before run-time what those values are, so I have to dynamically determine the enumeration.
For example a user reads in an array of colors (but we didnt know this before runtime) of "red", "green", "red", "blue", "white", "green", "black", "blue"
I would like this to enumerate to 0, 1, 0, 2, 3, 1, 4, 2
as zero based enumeration.
Is there any suggested methods of doing this as efficiently on SPEED over MEMORY as possible?
Thanks!
Glenn

Answer 1

I also don't know before run-time what those values are, so I have to dynamically determine the enumeration.Are you saying that you can't pre-define the universe of colors that a user could potentially enter? If so, how will you determine the equivalence of RED to 0, etc? That sounds suspicious, there is a finite number of colors!
Anyway, for what it's worth, here's some code (that requires you know the color labels that could be entered.)
enum Color
    RED(0), GREEN(1), BLUE(2), BLACK(3), WHITE(4);
    private final int colorValue;
    private Color(int colorValue)
        this.colorValue = colorValue;
    public int getColorValue()
        return colorValue;
public class EnumTest
    public static void main(String[] args)
        System.out.println(Color.RED + " = " + Color.RED.getColorValue());
        System.out.println(Color.GREEN + " = " + Color.GREEN.getColorValue());
        System.out.println(Color.BLUE + " = " + Color.BLUE.getColorValue());
        System.out.println(Color.BLACK + " = " + Color.BLACK.getColorValue());
        System.out.println(Color.WHITE + " = " + Color.WHITE.getColorValue());
}