Return Enum From C# Property getters

Question

How do you return an Enum from a setter/getter function?

Currently I have this:

    public enum LowerCase
    {
        a,
        b,
    }
    public en         


        

Answer 1

I think you may have misunderstood the reasons for using enumerations. An enumeration is a special type of variable that can only take a specific set of values. For example. a boolean is a very special case of enumeration. A boolean variable is one that can only take 2 values - Either "true" or "false".

You have defined an enumeration:

public enum LowerCase
    {
        a,
        b,
    }

This means that a variable of type LowerCase will only be able to be set to either a, or b. This isn't really much use.

Your other enumeration is more sensible:

public enum Case
    {
        Upper,
        Lower,
    }

A variable of type Case can be set to either "Upper" or "Lower". Now when you define a variable of an enumeration type, you specify the type you want it to be. You have done this:

private Enum case;

but what think you mean is:

private Case case;

This defines a private variable of type Case called case. The enum keyword is only used when you are defining a new enumeration, not when you are defining a variable of an enumeration type.

Similarly, where you have defined your property, you should use the enum type that you want to return:

public Case ChooseCase
{...

And where you are trying to return a enumeration value, you should be doing this:

return Case.Lower