C# Explicit Type Casting Enumeration

Question

I need to create a List of object of whatever Enumeration type is passed into the function below. I don't know what type it will be, but it can be any one of many possible enumerations in my project.

public static List<object> CreateEnumList(Enum enumeration)
{ 
    List<object> returnList = new List<object>();
    for (int enumIndex = 0; enumIndex < Enum.GetNames(enumeration.GetType()).Length; enumIndex++)
        returnList.Add((enumeration.GetType())enumIndex);
    return returnList;
}

How can I get the type cast to work correctly? The return value MUST be List of objects. Thank you

Answer 1

This is enough

public static List<object> CreateEnumList(Enum enumeration)
{ 
    return Enum.GetValues(enumeration.GetType()).Cast<object>().ToList();
}

Answer 2

Solution 1

Generic Enum to List converter (C#) One for the utility library...

It takes an enum type and returns a generic list populated with each enum item.

public static List<T> EnumToList<T>()
{
    Type enumType = typeof (T);

    // Can't use type constraints on value types, so have to do check like this
    if (enumType.BaseType != typeof(Enum))
        throw new ArgumentException("T must be of type System.Enum");

    Array enumValArray = Enum.GetValues(enumType);

    List<T> enumValList = new List<T>(enumValArray.Length);

    foreach (int val in enumValArray) {
        enumValList.Add((T)Enum.Parse(enumType, val.ToString()));
    }

    return enumValList;
} 

---

Solution 2

This will return an IEnumerable<SomeEnum> of all the values of an Enum.

Enum.GetValues(typeof(SomeEnum)).Cast<SomeEnum>();

If you want that to be a List<SomeEnum>, just add .ToList() after .Cast<SomeEnum>().

public static List<T> CreateEnumList<T>(Enum enumeration)  
{
    return Enum.GetValues(typeof(T)).Cast<T>().ToList();
}

Check here : How do I convert an enum to a list in C#?

Answer 3

Enum.Parse will do exactly what you need:

returnList.Add(Enum.Parse(enumeration.GetType(), enumIndex.ToString()));

For example, this prints b:

enum myEnum { a, b, c }
static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var e = Enum.Parse(typeof(myEnum), "1");
    Console.WriteLine(e);
}

Answer 4

How about

public IList<object> GetBoxedEnumValues<TEnum>()
{
    Type enumType = typeOf(TEnum);

    if (!enumType.IsEnum)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException(
            string.Format("\"{0}\" is not an Enum", enumType.Name));
    }

    return Enum.GetValues(enumType).Cast<object>().ToList();      
}