Declaring an C# Enum to Create a Collection of Integral Constants

Declaring enum: Possible Types and Use

The C# enum keyword indicates a collection of named integral constants.

Specifying C# enums within a namespace is the best practice as all the classes will be able to access it. It is also possible to place enum within a struct or a class.

Here is a basic code example, showing the way to declare enums:

enum grades {A, B, C, D, E, F};

Note: by default, C# enum type for elements is int. You can set it to different integral numeric by adding a colon.

The following code reveals the way to manipulate the type of elements:

enum grades : byte{A, B, C, D, E, F};

Here is a list of C# enum types that can replace int:

• sbyte
• byte
• short
• ushort
• int
• uint
• long
• ulong

If you need other options for the conversion of C# enum, string is also a possibility. To convert enums to strings, you should apply the ToString function:

using System;

public class EnumSample
{
    enum Holidays
    {
        Christmas = 1,
        Easter = 2
    };

    public static void Main()
    {
        Enum myHolidays = Holidays.Christmas;
        Console.WriteLine("The value of this instance is '{0}'", myHolidays.ToString());
    }
}

Note: you cannot set an enum to string as enums can only have integers. The conversion above simply converts an already existing enum into a string.

It is set that every enumeration begins at 0. With each element, the value increases by 1. However, it is possible to manipulate this default rule by specifying a value to elements in the set. In the C# enum example below, we used an initializer to assign a value to the elements.

enum grades {A=1, B, C, D, E, F};

You can use functions to make your code perform certain functions. For instance, the following code prints out all the elements in an enum:

using System;

public class EnumSample
{
    enum Holidays
    {
        Thanksgiving = 1,
        Christmas = 2,
        Easter = 3
    };

    public static void Main()
    {
        foreach (var item in Enum.GetNames(typeof (Holidays)))
        {
            Console.WriteLine(item);
        }
    }
}

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Adding Flags to C# Enum

There are two C# enum types: simple and flag. The flag type is for supporting bitwise operations with the enum values.

The [Flag] attribute is for representing a set of possible values and not a single value. Therefore, such sets are often used for bitwise operators.

The following C# enum example shows how to assign a flag on an enum by applying the bitwise OR operator:

using System;

public class Program
{
    enum Roommates
    {
        Josh = 1,
        Carol = 2,
        Christine = 4,
        Paul = 8
    }

    [Flags]
    enum RoommatesPav
    {
        Josh = 1,
        Carol = 2,
        Christine = 4,
        Paul = 8
    }

    public static void Main()
    {
        var str1 = (Roommates.Josh | Roommates.Paul).ToString();
        var str2 = (RoommatesPav.Josh | RoommatesPav.Paul).ToString();
        Console.WriteLine(str1);
        Console.WriteLine(str2);
    }
}

C# enum: Useful Tips

• C# enums define integers more consistently and clearly. There are fewer chances that your code will contain invalid constants.
• It is usually better to represent items with enum when their order in an enumeration is important.
• Be careful not to add the same values to different elements represented by enum. It can cause inconsistencies in your code and render unwanted results.