Enum inheritance explanation is not clear?

Question

So according to the java docs

All enums implicitly extend java.lang.Enum. Because a class can only extend one parent, the Java language does not support multiple inheritance of state, and therefore an enum cannot extend anything else.

But in java we also know:-

All classes in Java extend java.lang.Object class implicitly

But we can obviously extend Classes in java. Since the class we extend is itself extending from Object (hence it does not cause multiple inheritance, Or state it as:- If you do not extend any other class extend from Object else extend from class XYZ that extends from Object)

Is the explanation of the java docs incorrect for the fact that Enums are not able to extend other classes/enums etc?

Am I missing some silly point?

Answer 1

Run this code and you'll get the answer:

System.out.println(MyEnum.class.getSuperclass());
System.out.println(MyEnum.class.getSuperclass().getSuperclass());

public enum MyEnum  {   
}

Output:

class java.lang.Enum
class java.lang.Object

And on top of that consider that multiple inheritance is not allowed in Java. I.e. MyEnum already extends Enum while Enum already extends Object. There's no room for any other extension in this chain.

Answer 2

It simply means that you can not let your enums extend anything else than the implicitly extended Enum.

When it says Java does not allow extending multiple classes, it means that you can't have

.--------.   .----------.
| Enum   |   | YourBase |
'--------'   '----------'
     ^            ^
      \          /
        \       /
       .----------.
       | YourEnum |
       '----------'

THIS on the other hand, is entirely ok:

.--------.
| Object |
'--------'
     ^
     |
.--------.
|  Enum  |
'--------'
     ^
     |
.----------.
| YourEnum |
'----------'

When the documentation says

All classes in Java extend java.lang.Object class implicitly

It simply means that each class either extends Object directly, or indirectly through it's super class.