Java using supertype of several enums

Question

I want to be able to use a supertype over different enums, the code consists of three parts:

Manager.search:

public final List<B> search(final Order order, final Field field, final AbstractConstraint... c) throws SearchException {
    if (c.length == 0) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("orm.Manager.search: c.length == 0");
    }
    try {
        List<B> beans = new ArrayList<>();

        for (AbstractConstraint constraint : c) {
            try (PreparedStatement ps = new QueryBuilder(connection, tableName(), getPaths(), searchQuery()).add(constraint).order(order, field).build();ResultSet rs = ps.executeQuery()) {
                while (rs.next()) {
                    beans.add(createBean(rs));
                }
            }
        }
        return beans;
    } catch (SQLException ex) {
        Logger.getLogger(Manager.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        throw new SearchException(ex);
    }
}

The order and field variables are most important here.

The auto-generated TemplateAttributeField.java:

public enum TemplateAttributeField implements Field {
    templateId,
    attributeOrder,
    attributeName,
    x1,
    x2;
}

And the calling code:

try (TemplateAttributeManager templateAttributeManager = ManagerFactory.getTemplateAttributeManager()) {
    List<TemplateAttributeBean> templateAttributes = null;
    try {
        templateAttributes = templateAttributeManager.search(Order.ASCENDING, TemplateAttributeField.attributeOrder, new TemplateAttributeConstraint.Builder().templateId(template.getTemplateId()).build());
    } catch (SearchException ex) {
        Logger.getLogger(OutputProcessor.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
    }
    for (Word word : words) {

    }
}

However at templateAttributes = ... I get the following exception/error:

no suitable method found for search(Order,TemplateAttributeField,TemplateAttributeConstraint)
    method Manager.search(Order,Field,AbstractConstraint...) is not applicable
      (actual argument TemplateAttributeField cannot be converted to Field by method invocation conversion)

And the Field class is on more than an interface which does not prevent extra functionality.

Am I missing something here, or how should I fix it?

Answer 1

I've tried to create a minimal working example, but it seems to work for me. Could you try if this works for you and is the same as you require?

public class Test {
    static interface I {}
    static enum E implements I {A}
    static void m(I i) {}

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        m(E.A);
    }
}

Also ensure that you implement the same Field interface in your enum as you require in your method. Maybe there's a name clash and you're using interfaces from different packages.