How to loop through an enum in C#?

Question

Ravi Vishwakarma · Answer

Looping through an enum in C# can be done using the Enum.GetValues method, which returns an array of the values of the constants in a specified enumeration. This allows you to use a
foreach loop to iterate over the enum values.
Here’s how you can loop through an enum:
Example Enum Definition
public enum DaysOfWeek
{
   Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
}
Looping Through the Enum
You can loop through the DaysOfWeek enum as follows:
foreach (DaysOfWeek day in Enum.GetValues(typeof(DaysOfWeek)))
{
   Console.WriteLine(day);
}
This will output:
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Complete Example
Here is a complete example with the enum definition and the loop:
using System;
public class Program
{
    public enum DaysOfWeek
    {
        Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
    }
    public static void Main()
    {
        foreach (DaysOfWeek day in Enum.GetValues(typeof(DaysOfWeek)))
        {
            Console.WriteLine(day);
        }
    }
}
Additional Considerations
Enum Names: If you need to get the names of the enum values as strings, you can use the
Enum.GetNames method:
foreach (string name in Enum.GetNames(typeof(DaysOfWeek)))
{
    Console.WriteLine(name);
}
Enum Parsing: You can parse a string to get the corresponding enum value using
Enum.Parse
string dayName = "Monday";
DaysOfWeek day = (DaysOfWeek)Enum.Parse(typeof(DaysOfWeek), dayName);
Console.WriteLine(day);  // Output: Monday
Checking if Value is Defined: You can check if a value is defined in the enum using
Enum.IsDefined
bool isDefined = Enum.IsDefined(typeof(DaysOfWeek), "Monday");
Console.WriteLine(isDefined);  // Output: True
Looping through an enum is a straightforward task in C# and can be done efficiently with the built-in
Enum.GetValues and Enum.GetNames methods. This approach ensures that your code is both clean and easy to maintain.

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How to loop through an enum in C#?

Steilla Mitchel

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