toString() for Enums

public enum Shape { RECTANGLE, CIRCLE, LINE }

Shape drawing = Shape.RECTANGLE;   // Only a Shape value can be assigned.

System.out.println(drawing);    // Prints RECTANGLE

Override toString method for All Enums
A semicolon after the last element is required to be able to compile it. More details on overriding enum toString method can be found.

public enum Color {
WHITE, BLACK, RED, YELLOW, BLUE;  //; is required here.

@Override public String toString() {
//only capitalize the first letter
String s = super.toString();
return s.substring(0, 1) + s.substring(1).toLowerCase();
}
}

Override toString method element by element
The default string value for java enum is its face value, or the element name. However, you can customize the string value by overriding toString() method. For example,

public enum MyType {
ONE {
public String toString() {
return "this is one";
}
},

TWO {
public String toString() {
return "this is two";
}
}
}

Running the following test code will produce this:

public class EnumTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println(MyType.ONE);
System.out.println(MyType.TWO);
}
}
-------------
this is one
this is two

Another interesting fact is, once you override toString() method, you in effect turn each element into an anonymous inner class. So after compiling the above enum class, you will see a long list of class files:

MyType.class
MyType$1.class
MyType$2.class