How to enumerate an enum

Question

How can you enumerate an enum in C#?

E.g. the following code does not compile:

public enum Suit
{         


        

Answer 1

My solution works in .NET Compact Framework (3.5) and supports type checking at compile time:

public static List GetEnumValues() where T : new() {
    T valueType = new T();
    return typeof(T).GetFields()
        .Select(fieldInfo => (T)fieldInfo.GetValue(valueType))
        .Distinct()
        .ToList();
}

public static List GetEnumNames() {
    return typeof (T).GetFields()
        .Select(info => info.Name)
        .Distinct()
        .ToList();
}

• If anyone knows how to get rid of the T valueType = new T(), I'd be happy to see a solution.

A call would look like this:

List result = Utils.GetEnumValues();