typeof(System.Enum).IsClass == false

Question

Founded that:

typeof(System.Enum).IsClass == false

It\'s become strange that System.Enum has also .IsValueType == false<

Answer 1

I happened to recently revisit this problem under CLR4 and guess what, it is fixed now. The following definitions:

public struct SomeValueType{}

public enum SomeEnum
{
    FirstElement
}

with this program

Console.WriteLine( typeof( Enum ).IsClass );
Console.WriteLine( typeof( SomeEnum ).IsClass );

Console.WriteLine( typeof( ValueType).IsClass );
Console.WriteLine( typeof( SomeValueType).IsClass );

Yields the following results:

CLR2: False, False, True, False 
CLR4: True, False, True, False

Answer 2

It's an issue with .Net 1.1 and 2.0. I haven't checked it in 3.0

From MSDN User David Bernstein

The IsClass property of the System.Enum type returns "false", even though "System.Enum" inherits from "System.ValueType" and "typeof(System.ValueType).IsClass" return "true" (as expected). At the same time, typeof(System.Enum).IsValueType returns "false" as expected. This observed behavior seems to contradict the explicit documentation above which stipulates: "This property returns true for Type instances representing Enum and ValueType." I found this to be the case in both frameworks 1.1 and 2.0.