How to return enum from property

Question

Is there a way how to return full enum by property? Here is example of what I want to do:

// MyEnums.cs
public enum Languages
{
    cs = 0,
    pl = 1,
    en = 2,
    de = 3,
}

// General.cs
public static MyEnums.Languages Languages
{
    get
    {
        return MyEnums.Languages;
    }
}

No. I think you may be confused about what an enum is. It is a *type*, not simply a list. Trying to return `Languages` as a value makes about as much sense as `return System.String;`. Are you trying to return a `Languages` variable which has flags set for all languages? — Glorin Oakenfoot, Nov 19 '15 at 14:09
I don't think that OP is asking the same thing as the duplicate. — Sergey Kalinichenko, Nov 19 '15 at 14:13
Possible duplicate of [How do I enumerate an enum?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/105372/how-do-i-enumerate-an-enum) — Patrick Hofman, Nov 19 '15 at 14:18
Constructing a List or array full of the enum values should suffice. I don't understand why you would ever need to do this though. If it's for parsing just use a string with the desired enum name, and then use a switch statement to figure out which one it is. I've been programming for years and have never needed the "full" enum. — Krythic, Nov 19 '15 at 15:11

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 19 '15 at 14:17

enum is a type, i guess you actually want to get all enum-values. You could use this wrapper:

public static class EnumWrapper<T> where T : struct
{
    public static T[] Values
    {
        get
        {
            Type ofT = typeof(T);
            if (!ofT.IsEnum) throw new ArgumentException("Must be enum type");
            return Enum.GetValues(ofT).Cast<T>().ToArray();
        }
    }
}

// ...

Languages[] languages = EnumWrapper<Languages>.Values;

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 19 '15 at 14:15

If you want to return all available values defined in the enum, you can use

Enum.GetValues(typeof(MyEnums.Languages));

and modify your method so it returns a MyEnums.Languages[] (or a List<MyEnums.Languages>, which is always easier to manage for calling code)

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 19 '15 at 14:16

To get all values in the enum, use Enum.GetValues. You might also want to cast it back to the correct type:

Languages[] languages = Enum.GetValues(typeof(Languages)).Cast<Languages>().ToArray();
// languages is an array containing { Languages.cs, Languages.pl, Languages.en, Languages.de }

How to return enum from property

3 Answers3