Assigning an Enum to a Type Instance

Question

I have been trying to make a generic utility and one of the things I'd like to do is pass an Enum definition to a possible Type instance.

It would look something like this:

public enum ExampleEnum
{
   Testing,
   OtherTesting
}

public static void FunctionWithEnum(Type enumarationDefinition)
{
   if(enumarationDefinition instanceOf ExampleEnum)
      return ExampleEnum.CustomaryAction();
   //Using the same format, performing the same answer...
}

//It would then be called like 
FunctionWithEnum(ExampleEnum);

I of course started out with some prototyping in the Apex Anonymous windows:

Type enumarationType = ExampleEnum;

if(enumarationType instanceof ExampleEnum)
    System.Debug('You are working with the ExampleEnum enumeration');

The only problem is when I try to assign an Enum to a Type instance/parameter, I get the following message:

Variable does not exist: ExampleEnum

So the question is, how come this particular example does not work?

I'm am hoping for a solution so, I can use a Map and have a key of the enum and an interface definition for the action. It would be something like this:

public enum ExampleEnum
{
   Testing,
   OtherTesting
}

public static Map<Type, ICustomAction> EnumerationToCustomActionMap = new Map<Type, ICustomAction>
{
   ExampleEnum => ActionUsingInterface(),
   //Other mapped enumeration definitions   
};

public <some return type> FunctionWithEnum(Type enumarationDefinition)
{
   if(!EnumerationToCustomActionMap.containsKey(enumarationDefinition))
      thrown CustomException('No custom iaction found for enumeration'); 
   return EnumerationToCustomActionMap.get(enumarationDefinition);
}

Answer 1

I think what you're trying to get at is how to get the Type of an Enum? You can use Type.forName('MyEnum'). I verified that you cannot get the Type using MyEnum.class, it won't compile.

public interface ICustomAction { Object execute(); }
public class ConcreteAction implements ICustomAction
{
    public Object execute() { return null; }
}

public Enum Season { SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER }
static Map<Type, ICustomAction> enumToAction = new Map<Type, ICustomAction>
{ // probably should keep this private
    Type.forName('Season') => new ConcreteAction()
};

With the above, you can now define a method as follows:

public static ICustomAction getAction(Type enumarationDefinition)
{
    return enumToAction.get(enumerationDefinition);
}

Perhaps even more useful:

public static Object executeAction(Type enumarationDefinition)
{
    ICustomAction action = enumToAction.get(enumerationDefinition);
    return (action == null) ? null : action.execute();
}

Hope that was on track. Let me know if I need to change direction a bit.