How do I select a random value from an enumeration?

Question

Given an arbitrary enumeration in C#, how do I select a random value?

(I did not find this very basic question on SO. I\'ll post my answer in a minute as reference f

Answer 1

Use Enum.GetValues to retrieve an array of all values. Then select a random array item.

static Random _R = new Random ();
static T RandomEnumValue ()
{
    var v = Enum.GetValues (typeof (T));
    return (T) v.GetValue (_R.Next(v.Length));
}

Test:

for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    var value = RandomEnumValue ();
    Console.WriteLine (value.ToString ());
}

->

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