Re: ordinal() returns inconsistent values?

From:

Lew <lew@lewscanon.com>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.programmer

Date:

Thu, 8 Apr 2010 12:58:13 -0700 (PDT)

Message-ID:

<5ce5c33c-9ea7-4fdd-bb38-7036a49835d3@q15g2000yqj.googlegroups.com>

Todd wrote:

I have recently been told that the ordinal() method in a Java enum
will not necessarily return the same value in different invocations of
the JVM. Has anyone else found this?

Joshua Cranmer wrote:

To do so would contradict the API:
public final int ordinal()

Returns the ordinal of this enumeration constant (its positio=

n in

its enum declaration, where the initial constant is assigned an ordinal
of zero). Most programmers will have no use for this method. It is
designed for use by sophisticated enum-based data structures, such as
EnumSet and EnumMap.

Returns:
the ordinal of this enumeration constant

Todd wrote:

I fully agree. I was told that the JavaDocs were wrong. I tried
locating a source on the web to corroborate the assertion, but
couldn't find one.

"I was told ..."

Who told you? How authoritative is this source usually? What
evidence did they give for this outrageous assertion? Wouldn't it
break 'EnumSet' and 'EnumMap' if your source were correct?

--
Lew
Please do not quote sigs.