Determining the number of elements defined in an enum

Question

Hello,
I have an enum and I want to determine the number of elements (constants) defined in this enum by source code. I know I can use reflection but I just want to know if there's an easier way.
Thank you very much.

Answer 1

Hey JavaWisdom,
You can use the ordinal method. I made a simple example to demonstrate.
public class NumberOfEnums {
     public static enum Enumeration {
          item1, item2, item3, item4
     public void count() {
          Enumeration[] values = Enumeration.values();
          int numElems = 0;
          for (Enumeration type : values) {
               if (type.ordinal() > numElems) {
                    numElems = type.ordinal();
          // Correct 0 indexed numbering
          numElems += 1;
          System.out.println("numElems : " + numElems);
     public static void main(String args[]) {
          NumberOfEnums noe = new NumberOfEnums();
          noe.count();
}Cheers,
Cypher