“Use of unassigned local variable” compiler error for switch statement in C#?

Question

I have the following C# code:

AnimalTypeEnum animal;
string s = Console.ReadLine();
switch (s.ToLower())
{
case \"dog\":
    animal = AnimalTypeEnum.DOG;
            


        

Answer 1

You should have a default ENUM for any animal unknown to your code. You could even make your code to learn new animals. For instance.

switch (s.ToLower())
{
default:
    animal = AnimalType.Unkown;
    break;
}

or

default:
    animal = new MakeEnum(s.ToLower());
    myEnumList.Add(animal);
    break;

Your MakeEnum basically just needs to check length of current number of enums, and make a new enum using the number or some other parameter.