Initial Value of an Enum

Question

I have a class with a property which is an enum

The enum is

/// 

/// All available delivery actions
/// 
public enum E         


        

Answer 1

Enum fields are initialized as zero; an if you don't specify values in an enum, they start at zero (Email = 0, SharePoint=1, etc).

Thus by default any field you do initialize yourself will be Email. It is relatively common to add None=0 for such cases, or alternatively use Nullable; i.e.

/// 

/// All available delivery actions
/// 
public enum EnumDeliveryAction
{
    /// 

    /// Not specified
    /// 
    None,

    /// 

    /// Tasks with email delivery action will be emailed
    /// 
    Email,

    /// 

    /// Tasks with SharePoint delivery action 
   /// 
   SharePoint
}

You should also be sure to never treat your last expected value as a default; i.e.

switch(action) {
    case EnumDeliveryAction.Email; RunEmail(); break;
    default: RunSharePoint(); break;
}

this should be:

switch(action) {
    case EnumDeliveryAction.Email; RunEmail(); break;
    case EnumDeliveryAction.SharePoint; RunSharePoint(); break;
    default: throw new InvalidOperationException(
          "Unexpected action: " + action);
}