Thread: How should handle a "large" amount of static final

Hey, I have a CS problem that I'm trying to handle. It revolves around the best way to handle a large (200ish) number of "final" Strings, and how best to store/call them for use.

The question, simply, is what is the best way to store/call them? Currently I have them all in a static class from which I simply say ClassName.StringName to call these strings. This is functional, but I am curious to know if there's a better way to be going about this.

If I'm not being clear, I'll give an example:

Say I have 4 strings named "Thing 1", "Thing 2", "Thing 3", and "Thing 4", and I needed to call upon these strings in different classes, like this:

class foo
{
private String localThingOne = "Thing 1";
private String localThingTwo = "Thing 2";
private String localThingThree = "Thing 3";
}

class bar
{
private String localThingOne = "Thing 1";
private String localThingTwo = "Thing 2";
private String localThingThree = "Thing 3";
}

Good programming practice tells me that if I'm going to use the same String multiple times like this, I ought to store this string in a single variable and call upon the variable, in case that string were to need changing. So, I have created a class called "Things", here:

class Thing
{
public static Final String ThingOne = "Thing 1";
public static Final String ThingOne = "Thing 2";
public static Final String ThingOne = "Thing 3";
}

and in my other classes I now do this:

class foo
{
private String localThingOne = Thing.ThingOne;
private String localThingTwo = Thing.ThingTwo;
private String localThingThree = Thing.ThingThree;
}


class bar
{
private String localThingOne = Thing.ThingOne;
private String localThingTwo = Thing.ThingTwo;
private String localThingThree = Thing.ThingThree;
}

Additional info. pertaining to my specific situation:
- All of the classes that will be calling these Strings are going to inherit the same parent class, so I could store them in the parent class as public Strings and call upon them via inheritance.
- I have about 200 Strings, and these Strings change frequently, so being able to change them universally is a must.
- I have access to a database, and I could store them in this database, and call upon them through a SQL query.

So to restate my question, is there a better way to do this?

EDIT:

To add one more thing, each String almost needs to be identifiable when it is called. What I mean is, Thing.ThingOne works, wheras Thing.Things[2] is not descriptive enough and will lead to incredible confusion in the specific problem :-)

Alright, so I actually solved my own problem (imagine that!) by using enums!

Rather than go through a full-on explanation, I'll just show how I did it:

Code:

class Thing
{
     enum Foo
     {
          ThingOne("Thing1"),
          ThingTwo("Thing2"),
          ThingThree(Thing3");

          private String thingID;
          String getThing() { return thingID; }
          Thing(String thingID ) { this.thingID = thingID; }    	
}

And in the derived class all I would have to do is this to get ahold of my string:

Code:

class Stuff extends Thing
{
     System.out.println(Foo.getThing(ThingOne));
}

Or something like that (exact syntax may be off).

I hope this helps someone, somewhere. It helped me :-)

Is it using fortun language?