alternative for interface

[jacob deiter]

I have used interface for maintaining global constant in my application, but people suggest that interface is not appropriate for this. please suggest is there any alternative for this ?

[Maneesh Godbole]

Originally posted by jacob deiter:
..but people suggest that interface is not appropriate for this.

Did they explain why it is not appropriate?

[Darryl Burke]

A final class with all static final fields?

[jacob deiter]

Can i use ENUMS of java 1.5 for this ?

[Paul Sturrock]

Yes.

[Ulf Dittmer]

You should not.

[Rob Spoor]

It all depends.

If the interface only has constants like Darryl asked, and those constants represent a choice, then yes, an enum should work just fine. For example, the locational and orienting constants of SwingConstants (e.g. NORTH, BOTTOM, HORIZONTAL) could very well be in enums:

public enum Location
{
    EAST, WEST, NORTH, SOUTH, NORTH_EAST, NORTH_WEST, SOUTH_EAST, SOUTH_WEST
}
public enum Orientation
{
    HORIZONTAL, VERTICAL
}

Otherwise I agree with Ulf.