How can I use a special char in a C# enum?

Question

For example:

public enum Unit{
  KW,
  kV,
  V,
  Hz,
  %V
}

In this case % is a special character. So, how can I put this char in a enum?

Answer 1

Even if you could do that (and it looks you can't), it probably wouldn't be a good idea, because you'd be mixing how the enum should be displayed with the program code to manipulate it. A better option would be to define an attribute (or use existing DisplayNameAttribute) and annotate your enum with names as additional meta-data:

public enum Unit{ 
  [DisplayName("Hz")] Hertz, 
  [DisplayName("%V")] Volt 
} 

Answer 2

Enum members shouldn't be used for user interface display purposes. They should be mapped to a string in order to get displayed. You can create a string array (or a dictionary) that maps each enum member to a string for user interaction.

That said, to answer your question directly, you can use \uxxxxV were xxxx is the hexadecimal number representing the Unicode code point for %. This is far from recommended. As Henk points out, this won't work for % as it's not in Unicode classes Lu, Ll, Lt, Lm, Lo, Nl, Mn, Mc, Nd, Pc, Cf (letters, digits, connecting, and formatting characters). Only these characters are acceptable for identifiers.