Numeric constants in enum (c#)

Question

I\'m creating this selectbox in a SharePoint web part and need to have a drop down with the current version so I need to use an Enum.

public enum SelectVersionEn         


        

Answer 1

No, you can not name enums with integer names.

An enum value name is a normal identifier and must follow the same rules as everything else.

You can, however, use:

public enum SelectVersionEnum
{
    Version2007 = 12,
    Version2010 = 14
}

Additionally, Enum.Parse can parse strings with integers into their corresponding enum value, even if value described in the string doesn't exist.

Try the following in LINQPad:

void Main()
{
    Enum.Parse(typeof(SelectVersionEnum), "12").Dump();
    Enum.Parse(typeof(SelectVersionEnum), "14").Dump();
    Enum.Parse(typeof(SelectVersionEnum), "2007").Dump();
}

public enum SelectVersionEnum
{
    Version2007 = 12,
    Version2010 = 14
}

The output:

Version2007
Version2010
2007

What do you think would've happened if you defined the following:

public enum SelectVersionEnum
{
    12 = 14,
    14 = 16
}

Does the string "14" now mean "12" or "14"?