this method allows the deserialization of an instance of this enumeration type to return the actual instance that will be the singleton for the jvm in which the current thread is running . doing this will allow users to safely use the equality operator == for enumerations because a regular deserialized object is always a newly constructed instance and will therefore never be an existing reference ; it is this readresolve method which will intercept the deserialization process in order to return the proper singleton reference . this method is documented here : java object serialization specification concode_field_sep java.util.List<String> names concode_elem_sep java.util.List<FactorType> valueList concode_elem_sep FactorType CATEGORICAL concode_elem_sep FactorType CONTINUOUS concode_elem_sep java.util.List<String> literals concode_elem_sep java.util.Map<String,FactorType> values concode_elem_sep long serialVersionUID concode_elem_sep String value concode_field_sep String getValue concode_elem_sep java.util.List<String> names concode_elem_sep int hashCode concode_elem_sep java.util.List<String> literals concode_elem_sep java.util.List<FactorType> values concode_elem_sep boolean equals concode_elem_sep String toString concode_elem_sep FactorType fromString concode_elem_sep int compareTo
Object function ( ) { return FactorType . fromString ( this . value ) ; }