Enum is C# Explained

 An enum, short for enumeration is a set of named integer constants. An enumerated type is declared using the enum keyword.

C# enumerations are value data type. In other words, enumeration contains its own values and cannot inherit or cannot pass inheritance.

By using an enumeration, we can group constants that are logically related to each other. For example, the days of the week can be grouped together by using enumeration.

 Declaring enum Variable

The general syntax for declaring an enumeration is –

enum <enum_name>

{

    enumeration list

};

Where

·        The enum_name specifies the enumeration type name.

·        The enumeration list is a comma-separated list of identifiers.

Each of the symbols in the enumeration list stands for an integer value, one greater than the symbol that precedes it. By default, the value of the first enumeration symbol is 0. For example –

enum Days

{

   Sun, Mon, tue, Wed, thu, Fri, Sat

};

 

Example

The following example demonstrates use of enum variable –

using System;

namespace CsharpnaijaTutorial

{

    class EnumExample

    {

        enum Days { Sun, Mon, tue, Wed, thu, Fri, Sat };

 

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            int WeekdayStart = (int)Days.Mon;

            int WeekdayEnd = (int)Days.Fri;

 

            Console.WriteLine($"Monday: {WeekdayStart}");

            Console.WriteLine($"Friday: {WeekdayEnd}");

            Console.ReadKey();

        }

    }

}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the result as shown below−

 

C# Enum Methods

We have a class called Enum that contains the following helper methods to work with an enumeration (enum) in C#.

 

Method	Description
Format	It is useful to convert the value of enum type to a specified string format.
GetName	It is useful to get the name of the specified enum item.
GetNames	It is useful to get all item names of the specified enum as an array.
GetValues	It is useful to get all item values of the specified enum as an array.
Parse	It is useful to convert the string representation of the name or numeric value of one or more enumerated constants to an equivalent enumerated object.
GetUnderlyingType	It is useful to return the underlying type of the specified enumeration.

C# Iterate through Enum

In c#, we can iterate or loop through enum items using for or foreach loop to get the enumeration item names or values by using enum helper methods.

 

Following is the example of a loop through enum items to get all item names and values using enum helper methods based on our requirements.

 

using System;

namespace CsharpnaijaTutorial

{

    class Program

    {

        enum Week

        {

            Sunday,

            Monday,

            Tuesday,

            Wednesday,

            Thursday,

            Friday,

            Saturday

        }

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            Console.WriteLine("Week Enumeration Values");

            foreach (string week in Enum.GetNames(typeof(Week)))

            {

                Console.WriteLine(week);

            }

            Console.WriteLine("\nPress Any Key to Exit..");

            Console.ReadLine();

        }

    }

}

 

When you execute the above C# program, we will get the result as shown below.

 

 

Thank you

 

References

1.     Tutorialspoint

2.     Tutlane