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

Personally, I'm a fan of extension methods, so I would use something like this (while not really an extension, it looks similar):

public enum Options {
    Zero,
    One,
    Two,
    Three,
    Four,
    Five
}

public static class RandomEnum {
    private static Random _Random = new Random(Environment.TickCount);

    public static T Of() {
        if (!typeof(T).IsEnum)
            throw new InvalidOperationException("Must use Enum type");

        Array enumValues = Enum.GetValues(typeof(T));
        return (T)enumValues.GetValue(_Random.Next(enumValues.Length));
    }
}

[TestClass]
public class RandomTests {
    [TestMethod]
    public void TestMethod1() {
        Options option;
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
            option = RandomEnum.Of();
            Console.WriteLine(option);
        }
    }

}