Get Enum value by reflection in Kotlin

The best way I have found is to create an interface for the enums, converting them in typed enums:

/**
     * Allow to search enums by type
     */
    interface TypedEnum<T> {
        fun value(): T

        companion object {

            /**
             * Get the value of a typed enum
             * @param enumValues array - You can get it with Enum.values()
             * @param enumValue to search
             * @param defaultValue to return if not found
             * @return enum type or default value if not found or first enum value if default value not set
             */
            fun <T, E : TypedEnum<T>> getEnumValue(enumValues: Array<E>, enumValue: T, defaultValue: E? = null): E {
                try {
                    return enumValues.first { it.value()?.equals(enumValue) ?: false}
                } catch (nsee: NoSuchElementException) {
//                    Log.e("TYPED_ENUM", "Exception converting value to enum type: $nsee")
                }
                return defaultValue ?: enumValues.first()
            }
        }

    }

    enum class TypeInt: TypedEnum<Int> {
        TYPE_1 { override fun value() = 1 },
        TYPE_2 { override fun value() = 2 },
        TYPE_3 { override fun value() = 3 },
    }

    enum class TypeString: TypedEnum<String> {
        TYPE_1 { override fun value() = "1" },
        TYPE_2 { override fun value() = "2" },
        TYPE_3 { override fun value() = "3" },
    }

    @Test
    fun getEnumValue_valueExistInt() {

        val value = TypedEnum.getEnumValue(TypeInt.values(), 2)
        assertEquals(TypeInt.TYPE_2, value)
    }

    @Test
    fun getEnumValue_valueExistString() {

        val value = TypedEnum.getEnumValue(TypeString.values(), "2")
        assertEquals(TypeString.TYPE_2, value)
    }

    @Test
    fun getEnumValue_valueNotExist() {

        val value = TypedEnum.getEnumValue(TypeInt.values(), 0)
        assertEquals(TypeInt.TYPE_1, value)
    }

    @Test
    fun getEnumValue_valueNotExistReturnDefault() {

        val value = TypedEnum.getEnumValue(TypeInt.values(), 0, TypeInt.TYPE_3)
        assertEquals(TypeInt.TYPE_3, value)
    }

It is not the most elegant way, but it works. If I find a better solution I update this message.


You could do this in following way, of course you should probably do some additional checks for passed parameters but this should be what you are looking for:

fun getEnumValue(enumClassName: String, enumValue: String): Any {
    val enumClz = Class.forName(enumClassName).enumConstants as Array<Enum<*>>
    return enumClz.first { it.name == enumValue }
}

Also there is enumValueOf function but there you need to know actual enum type so not sure it helps, anyway here is how you could use that:

enum class SomeEnum{
    FIRST, SECOND
}
val enumMember = enumValueOf<SomeEnum>("FIRST")