How to iterate over values of an Enum having flags?

Question

static IEnumerable<Enum> GetFlags(Enum input)
{
    foreach (Enum value in Enum.GetValues(input.GetType()))
        if (input.HasFlag(value))
            yield return value;
}

Here is a Linq solution to the problem.

public static IEnumerable<Enum> GetFlags(this Enum e)
{
      return Enum.GetValues(e.GetType()).Cast<Enum>().Where(e.HasFlag);
}

There aren't any builtin methods to get each component as far as I know. But here's one way you can get them:

[Flags]
enum Items
{
    None = 0x0,
    Foo  = 0x1,
    Bar  = 0x2,
    Baz  = 0x4,
    Boo  = 0x6,
}

var value = Items.Foo | Items.Bar;
var values = value.ToString()
                  .Split(new[] { ", " }, StringSplitOptions.None)
                  .Select(v => (Items)Enum.Parse(typeof(Items), v));

// This method will always end up with the most applicable values
value = Items.Bar | Items.Baz;
values = value.ToString()
              .Split(new[] { ", " }, StringSplitOptions.None)
              .Select(v => (Items)Enum.Parse(typeof(Items), v)); // Boo

---

I adapted what Enum does internally to generate the string to instead return the flags. You can look at the code in reflector and should be more or less equivalent. Works well for general use cases where there are values which contain multiple bits.

static class EnumExtensions
{
    public static IEnumerable<Enum> GetFlags(this Enum value)
    {
        return GetFlags(value, Enum.GetValues(value.GetType()).Cast<Enum>().ToArray());
    }

    public static IEnumerable<Enum> GetIndividualFlags(this Enum value)
    {
        return GetFlags(value, GetFlagValues(value.GetType()).ToArray());
    }

    private static IEnumerable<Enum> GetFlags(Enum value, Enum[] values)
    {
        ulong bits = Convert.ToUInt64(value);
        List<Enum> results = new List<Enum>();
        for (int i = values.Length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
        {
            ulong mask = Convert.ToUInt64(values[i]);
            if (i == 0 && mask == 0L)
                break;
            if ((bits & mask) == mask)
            {
                results.Add(values[i]);
                bits -= mask;
            }
        }
        if (bits != 0L)
            return Enumerable.Empty<Enum>();
        if (Convert.ToUInt64(value) != 0L)
            return results.Reverse<Enum>();
        if (bits == Convert.ToUInt64(value) && values.Length > 0 && Convert.ToUInt64(values[0]) == 0L)
            return values.Take(1);
        return Enumerable.Empty<Enum>();
    }

    private static IEnumerable<Enum> GetFlagValues(Type enumType)
    {
        ulong flag = 0x1;
        foreach (var value in Enum.GetValues(enumType).Cast<Enum>())
        {
            ulong bits = Convert.ToUInt64(value);
            if (bits == 0L)
                //yield return value;
                continue; // skip the zero value
            while (flag < bits) flag <<= 1;
            if (flag == bits)
                yield return value;
        }
    }
}

The extension method GetIndividualFlags() gets all the individual flags for a type. So values containing multiple bits are left out.

var value = Items.Bar | Items.Baz;
value.GetFlags();           // Boo
value.GetIndividualFlags(); // Bar, Baz

Coming back at this a few years later, with a bit more experience, my ultimate answer for single-bit values only, moving from lowest bit to highest bit, is a slight variant of Jeff Mercado's inner routine:

public static IEnumerable<Enum> GetUniqueFlags(this Enum flags)
{
    ulong flag = 1;
    foreach (var value in Enum.GetValues(flags.GetType()).Cast<Enum>())
    {
        ulong bits = Convert.ToUInt64(value);
        while (flag < bits)
        {
            flag <<= 1;
        }

        if (flag == bits && flags.HasFlag(value))
        {
            yield return value;
        }
    }
}

It seems to work, and despite my objections of some years ago, I use HasFlag here, since it's far more legible than using bitwise comparisons and the speed difference is insignificant for anything I'll be doing. (It's entirely possible they've improved the speed of HasFlags since then anyway, for all I know...I haven't tested.)

Going off of @Greg's method, but adding a new feature from C# 7.3, the Enum constraint:

public static IEnumerable<T> GetUniqueFlags<T>(this T flags)
    where T : Enum    // New constraint for C# 7.3
{
    foreach (Enum value in Enum.GetValues(flags.GetType()))
        if (flags.HasFlag(value))
            yield return (T)value;
}

The new constraint allows this to be an extension method, without having to cast through (int)(object)e, and I can use the HasFlag method and cast directly to T from value.

C# 7.3 also added constraints to for delegates and unmanaged.