NoSuchMethodError for calling an Enum subclass type's valueOf() with reflection?

Question

Luckily, to solve this problem of mine, I could use Java: instantiating an enum using reflection (the following line: Enum.valueOf((Class<Enum>) class.forName("me.example.enums.MyEnumType"), value); ), however I am still curious why it didn't work initially.

I tried calling my own Enum subclass's valueOf(String) method using reflection, but it threw a NoSuchMethodError.

java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: me.example.enums.MyEnumType.valueOf() 

A minimal example is the following:

package me.example.enums;

public enum MyEnumType
{
    THIS,
    THAT;
}

and

package me.example;

import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;

public class MainClass
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        String enumClassPath = "me.example.enums.MyEnumType";
        Object object;
        try
        {
            Class<?> clazz = Class.forName(enumClassPath);
            Method method = clazz.getMethod("valueOf");
            object = method.invoke(null, "THAT");
        }
        catch (ClassNotFoundException | InvocationTargetException | NoSuchMethodException | IllegalAccessException e)
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
    }
}

Which throws:

java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: me.example.enums.MyEnumType.valueOf()
    at java.lang.Class.getMethod(Unknown Source)
    at me.example.MainClass.main(MainClass.java:15)
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: me.example.enums.MyEnumType.valueOf()
    at me.example.MainClass.main(MainClass.java:21)
Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: me.example.enums.MyEnumType.valueOf()
    at java.lang.Class.getMethod(Unknown Source)
    at me.example.MainClass.main(MainClass.java:15)

I thought valueOf() was a static method, why does it not exist? What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Class#valueOf needs a String parameter:

Method method = clazz.getMethod("valueOf", String.class);