How to enumerate an enum

Question

How can you enumerate an enum in C#?

E.g. the following code does not compile:

public enum Suit
{         


        

Answer 1

I think this is more efficient than other suggestions because GetValues() is not called each time you have a loop. It is also more concise. And you get a compile-time error, not a runtime exception if Suit is not an enum.

EnumLoop<Suit>.ForEach((suit) => {
    DoSomethingWith(suit);
});

EnumLoop has this completely generic definition:

class EnumLoop<Key> where Key : struct, IConvertible {
    static readonly Key[] arr = (Key[])Enum.GetValues(typeof(Key));
    static internal void ForEach(Action<Key> act) {
        for (int i = 0; i < arr.Length; i++) {
            act(arr[i]);
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

I use ToString() then split and parse the spit array in flags.

[Flags]
public enum ABC {
   a = 1,
   b = 2,
   c = 4
};

public IEnumerable<ABC> Getselected (ABC flags)
{
   var values = flags.ToString().Split(',');
   var enums = values.Select(x => (ABC)Enum.Parse(typeof(ABC), x.Trim()));
   return enums;
}

ABC temp= ABC.a | ABC.b;
var list = getSelected (temp);
foreach (var item in list)
{
   Console.WriteLine(item.ToString() + " ID=" + (int)item);
}

Answer 3

What if you know the type will be an enum, but you don't know what the exact type is at compile time?

public class EnumHelper
{
    public static IEnumerable<T> GetValues<T>()
    {
        return Enum.GetValues(typeof(T)).Cast<T>();
    }

    public static IEnumerable getListOfEnum(Type type)
    {
        MethodInfo getValuesMethod = typeof(EnumHelper).GetMethod("GetValues").MakeGenericMethod(type);
        return (IEnumerable)getValuesMethod.Invoke(null, null);
    }
}

The method getListOfEnum uses reflection to take any enum type and returns an IEnumerable of all enum values.

Usage:

Type myType = someEnumValue.GetType();

IEnumerable resultEnumerable = getListOfEnum(myType);

foreach (var item in resultEnumerable)
{
    Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Item: {0} Value: {1}",item.ToString(),(int)item));
}

Answer 4

Also you can bind to the public static members of the enum directly by using reflection:

typeof(Suit).GetMembers(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Static)
    .ToList().ForEach(x => DoSomething(x.Name));

Answer 5

I think you can use

Enum.GetNames(Suit)

Answer 6

Just by combining the top answers, I threw together a very simple extension:

public static class EnumExtensions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets all items for an enum value.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
    /// <param name="value">The value.</param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static IEnumerable<T> GetAllItems<T>(this T value) where T : Enum
    {
        return (T[])Enum.GetValues(typeof (T));
    }
}

It is clean, simple, and, by @Jeppe-Stig-Nielsen's comment, fast.