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
.