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

Question

I have the following code:

// Obtain the string names of all the elements within myEnum 
String[] names = Enum.GetNames( typeof( myEnum ) );

// Obtain the values of all the elements within myEnum 
Array values = Enum.GetValues( typeof( myEnum ) );

// Print the names and values to file
for ( int i = 0; i < names.Length; i++ )
{
    print( names[i], values[i] ); 
}

However, I cannot index values. Is there an easier way to do this?

Or have I missed something entirely!

Answer 1

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?

Answer 2

Old question, but a slightly cleaner approach using LINQ's .Cast<>()

var values = Enum.GetValues(typeof(MyEnum)).Cast<MyEnum>();

foreach(var val in values)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Member: {0}",val.ToString());     
}

Answer 3

Ancient question, but 3Dave's answer supplied the easiest approach. I needed a little helper method to generate a Sql script to decode an enum value in the database for debugging. It worked great:

    public static string EnumToCheater<T>() {
        var sql = "";
        foreach (var enumValue in Enum.GetValues(typeof(T)))
            sql += $@"when {(int) enumValue} then '{enumValue}' ";
        return $@"case ?? {sql}else '??' end,";
    }

I have it in a static method, so usage is:

var cheater = MyStaticClass.EnumToCheater<MyEnum>()

Answer 4

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 ?

Answer 5

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;
  } 
}

Answer 6

Array has a GetValue(Int32) method which you can use to retrieve the value at a specified index.

Array.GetValue