How to extend enum class from abstract class?

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All enums implicity extend Enum. In Java, a class can extend at most one other class.

You can, however, have your enum class implement an interface.

From this Java tutorial on Enum Types:

Note: All enums implicitly extend java.lang.Enum. Because a class can only extend one parent (see Declaring Classes), the Java language does not support multiple inheritance of state (see Multiple Inheritance of State, Implementation, and Type), and therefore an enum cannot extend anything else.

Edit for Java 8:

As of Java 8, an interface can include default methods. This allows you to include method implementations (but not state) in interfaces. Although the primary purpose of this capability is to allow evolution of public interfaces, you could use this to inherit a custom method defining a common behavior among multiple enum classes.

However, this could be brittle. If a method with the same signature were later added to the java.lang.Enum class, it would override your default methods . (When a method is defined both in a class’s superclass and interfaces, the class implementation always wins.)

For example:

interface IFoo {
    public default String name() {
        return "foo";
    }
}

enum MyEnum implements IFoo {
    A, B, C
}

System.out.println( MyEnum.A.name() );  // Prints "A", not "foo" - superclass Enum wins

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