Cannot convert type 'System.Enum' to int

Question

(OK, I'll expose the depths of my ignorance here, please be gentle)

Background

I've got a method which looks (a bit) like this:

public void AddLink(Enum enumVal) {      string identifier = m_EnumInterpreter(enumVal);      AddLink(identifier); } 

The EnumInterpreter is a Func<Enum, string> that is passed in when the parent class is created.

I'm using Enum because at this level it is 'none of my business'- I don't care which specific enum it is. The calling code just uses a (generated) enum to avoid magic strings.

Question

If the EnumInterpreter sends back an empty string, I'd like to throw an exception with the actual value of enumVal. I thought I would just be able to cast to int, but it the compiler won't have it. What am I doing wrong? (Please don't say 'everything').

Answer 1

System.Enum cannot be directly cast to Integer, but it does explicitly implement IConvertible, meaning you can use the following:

public void AddLink(Enum enumVal) {     string identifier = m_EnumInterpreter(Convert.ToInt32(enumVal));     AddLink(identifier); } 

Keep in mind that if your Enum is actually using something other than an Integer (such as a float), you'll lose the non-integer data on conversion. Or obviously replace the Convert call with whatever you are converting from (if it's known)

Answer 2

No, you aren't able to cast it to an int because System.Enum is not an enum, it's just the base class for enums.

EDIT:

You can get the value as follows, but it is ugly:

int intVar = (int)enuYourEnum.GetType().GetField("value__").GetValue(objYourEnum);