How to use private enums in other classes

Question

this is my superclass where i created an private enum

public class Media {

private String Title;
private enum Genre { Comedy, Horror, Action, Romance, Documentary, Thriller, Drama}

Genre genre;


public Media ()
{

}
public Media(String t, Genre g){

   this.Title=t;
   genre=g;

}

now i wanna use this in an subclass

public class Movies extends Media{
private String regi;
private int playtime;

public Movies(){

}

public Movies(String t, Genre g, String r, int playt)
{
    setTitle(t);
    genre=g;
    this.regi=r;
    this.playtime=playt;
}

but it is not working because its telling me that the enum is private when i send in the genre for the method of creating an Movie object? is it not possible to have a private enum and not use it in other classes or subclasses?

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/javaOO/accesscontrol.html — mre, Oct 17 '18 at 01:23

Mohammad C · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-17T01:28:39.140

1

Make the enum protected instead of private

protected enum Genre { Comedy, Horror, Action, Romance, Documentary, Thriller, Drama}

Private means only accessible in the class its declared.

Protected is same as private but derived classes have access to.

Public means access to all

edited Oct 17 '18 at 01:28

answered Oct 17 '18 at 01:20

Mohammad C

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 17 '18 at 01:29

I am not an expert with Java but in the case of define visibility. You define a private member(attribute, property, method) if you want to limitate the scope to the current class. In case of want to have access from a derivate class but keeping the scope to the class or derivates you should define it as protected. I strongly recommend to read a little bit about that because it is fundamental to understand all those basic concepts.

How to use private enums in other classes

2 Answers2