C# Iterating through an enum? (Indexing a System.Array)

Question

Array values = Enum.GetValues(typeof(myEnum));

foreach( MyEnum val in values )
{
   Console.WriteLine (String.Format("{0}: {1}", Enum.GetName(typeof(MyEnum), val), val));
}

Or, you can cast the System.Array that is returned:

string[] names = Enum.GetNames(typeof(MyEnum));
MyEnum[] values = (MyEnum[])Enum.GetValues(typeof(MyEnum));

for( int i = 0; i < names.Length; i++ )
{
    print(names[i], values[i]);
}

But, can you be sure that GetValues returns the values in the same order as GetNames returns the names ?

You need to cast the array - the returned array is actually of the requested type, i.e. myEnum[] if you ask for typeof(myEnum):

myEnum[] values = (myEnum[]) Enum.GetValues(typeof(myEnum));

Then values[0] etc

You can cast that Array to different types of Arrays:

myEnum[] values = (myEnum[])Enum.GetValues(typeof(myEnum));

or if you want the integer values:

int[] values = (int[])Enum.GetValues(typeof(myEnum));

You can iterate those casted arrays of course :)

How about a dictionary list?

Dictionary<string, int> list = new Dictionary<string, int>();
foreach( var item in Enum.GetNames(typeof(MyEnum)) )
{
    list.Add(item, (int)Enum.Parse(typeof(MyEnum), item));
}

and of course you can change the dictionary value type to whatever your enum values are.

Here is another. We had a need to provide friendly names for our EnumValues. We used the System.ComponentModel.DescriptionAttribute to show a custom string value for each enum value.

public static class StaticClass
{
    public static string GetEnumDescription(Enum currentEnum)
    {
        string description = String.Empty;
        DescriptionAttribute da;

        FieldInfo fi = currentEnum.GetType().
                    GetField(currentEnum.ToString());
        da = (DescriptionAttribute)Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(fi,
                    typeof(DescriptionAttribute));
        if (da != null)
            description = da.Description;
        else
            description = currentEnum.ToString();

        return description;
    }

    public static List<string> GetEnumFormattedNames<TEnum>()
    {
        var enumType = typeof(TEnum);
        if (enumType == typeof(Enum))
            throw new ArgumentException("typeof(TEnum) == System.Enum", "TEnum");

        if (!(enumType.IsEnum))
            throw new ArgumentException(String.Format("typeof({0}).IsEnum == false", enumType), "TEnum");

        List<string> formattedNames = new List<string>();
        var list = Enum.GetValues(enumType).OfType<TEnum>().ToList<TEnum>();

        foreach (TEnum item in list)
        {
            formattedNames.Add(GetEnumDescription(item as Enum));
        }

        return formattedNames;
    }
}

In Use

 public enum TestEnum
 { 
        [Description("Something 1")]
        Dr = 0,
        [Description("Something 2")]
        Mr = 1
 }



    static void Main(string[] args)
    {

        var vals = StaticClass.GetEnumFormattedNames<TestEnum>();
    }

This will end returning "Something 1", "Something 2"

Another solution, with interesting possibilities:

enum Days { Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday }

static class Helpers
{
public static IEnumerable<Days> AllDays(Days First)
{
  if (First == Days.Monday)
  {
     yield return Days.Monday;
     yield return Days.Tuesday;
     yield return Days.Wednesday;
     yield return Days.Thursday;
     yield return Days.Friday;
     yield return Days.Saturday;
     yield return Days.Sunday;
  } 

  if (First == Days.Saturday)
  {
     yield return Days.Saturday;
     yield return Days.Sunday;
     yield return Days.Monday;
     yield return Days.Tuesday;
     yield return Days.Wednesday;
     yield return Days.Thursday;
     yield return Days.Friday;
  } 
}

What about using a foreach loop, maybe you could work with that?

  int i = 0;
  foreach (var o in values)
  {
    print(names[i], o);
    i++;
  }

something like that perhaps?