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

Solution 1:

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 ?

Solution 2:

You need to cast the array - the returned array is actually of the requested type, i.e. myEnum[] if you ask for typeof(myEnum):

myEnum[] values = (myEnum[]) Enum.GetValues(typeof(myEnum));

Then values[0] etc

Solution 3:

You can cast that Array to different types of Arrays:

myEnum[] values = (myEnum[])Enum.GetValues(typeof(myEnum));

or if you want the integer values:

int[] values = (int[])Enum.GetValues(typeof(myEnum));

You can iterate those casted arrays of course :)

Solution 4:

How about a dictionary list?

Dictionary<string, int> list = new Dictionary<string, int>();
foreach( var item in Enum.GetNames(typeof(MyEnum)) )
{
    list.Add(item, (int)Enum.Parse(typeof(MyEnum), item));
}

and of course you can change the dictionary value type to whatever your enum values are.