Generate random enum in C# 2.0

Question

Could someone please point me toward a cleaner method to generate a random enum member. This works but seems ugly.

Thanks!

public T RandomEnum<T>() {   string[] items = Enum.GetNames(typeof( T ));   Random r = new Random();   string e = items[r.Next(0, items.Length - 1)];   return (T)Enum.Parse(typeof (T), e, true); } 

Answer 1

public T RandomEnum<T>() {    T[] values = (T[]) Enum.GetValues(typeof(T));   return values[new Random().Next(0,values.Length)]; } 

_{Thanks to @[Marc Gravell] for ponting out that the max in Random.Next(min,max) is exclusive.}

Answer 2

Marxidad's answer is good (note you only need Next(0,values.Length), since the upper bound is exclusive) - but watch out for timing. If you do this in a tight loop, you will get lots of repeats. To make it more random, consider keeping the Random object in a field - i.e.

private Random rand = new Random(); public T RandomEnum<T>() {    T[] values = (T[]) Enum.GetValues(typeof(T));   return values[rand.Next(0,values.Length)]; } 

If it is a static field, you will need to synchronize access.