Can we define implicit conversions of enums in c#?

Question

Is it possible to define an implicit conversion of enums in c#?

something that could achieve this?

public enum MyEnum
{
    one = 1, two = 2
}

MyEnum number = MyEnum.one;
long i = number;

If not, why not?

For further discussion and ideas on this, I followed up with how I currently handle this: Improving the C# enum

Answer 1

There is a solution. Consider the following:

public sealed class AccountStatus
{
    public static readonly AccountStatus Open = new AccountStatus(1);
    public static readonly AccountStatus Closed = new AccountStatus(2);

    public static readonly SortedList<byte, AccountStatus> Values = new SortedList<byte, AccountStatus>();
    private readonly byte Value;

    private AccountStatus(byte value)
    {
        this.Value = value;
        Values.Add(value, this);
    }


    public static implicit operator AccountStatus(byte value)
    {
        return Values[byte];
    }

    public static implicit operator byte(AccountStatus value)
    {
        return value.Value;
    }
}

The above offers implicit conversion:

        AccountStatus openedAccount = 1;            // Works
        byte openedValue = AccountStatus.Open;      // Works

This is a fair bit more work than declaring a normal enum (though you can refactor some of the above into a common generic base class). You can go even further by having the base class implement IComparable & IEquatable, as well as adding methods to return the value of DescriptionAttributes, declared names, etc, etc.

I wrote a base class (RichEnum<>) to handle most fo the grunt work, which eases the above declaration of enums down to:

public sealed class AccountStatus : RichEnum<byte, AccountStatus>
{
    public static readonly AccountStatus Open = new AccountStatus(1);
    public static readonly AccountStatus Closed = new AccountStatus(2);

    private AccountStatus(byte value) : base (value)
    {
    }

    public static implicit operator AccountStatus(byte value)
    {
        return Convert(value);
    }
}

The base class (RichEnum) is listed below.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Resources;

namespace Ethica
{
    using Reflection;
    using Text;

    [DebuggerDisplay("{Value} ({Name})")]
    public abstract class RichEnum<TValue, TDerived>
                : IEquatable<TDerived>,
                  IComparable<TDerived>,
                  IComparable, IComparer<TDerived>
        where TValue : struct , IComparable<TValue>, IEquatable<TValue>
        where TDerived : RichEnum<TValue, TDerived>
    {
        #region Backing Fields

        /// <summary>
        /// The value of the enum item
        /// </summary>
        public readonly TValue Value;

        /// <summary>
        /// The public field name, determined from reflection
        /// </summary>
        private string _name;

        /// <summary>
        /// The DescriptionAttribute, if any, linked to the declaring field
        /// </summary>
        private DescriptionAttribute _descriptionAttribute;

        /// <summary>
        /// Reverse lookup to convert values back to local instances
        /// </summary>
        private static SortedList<TValue, TDerived> _values;

        private static bool _isInitialized;


        #endregion

        #region Constructors

        protected RichEnum(TValue value)
        {
            if (_values == null)
                _values = new SortedList<TValue, TDerived>();
            this.Value = value;
            _values.Add(value, (TDerived)this);
        }

        #endregion

        #region Properties

        public string Name
        {
            get
            {
                CheckInitialized();
                return _name;
            }
        }

        public string Description
        {
            get
            {
                CheckInitialized();

                if (_descriptionAttribute != null)
                    return _descriptionAttribute.Description;

                return _name;
            }
        }

        #endregion

        #region Initialization

        private static void CheckInitialized()
        {
            if (!_isInitialized)
            {
                ResourceManager _resources = new ResourceManager(typeof(TDerived).Name, typeof(TDerived).Assembly);

                var fields = typeof(TDerived)
                                .GetFields(BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.GetField | BindingFlags.Public)
                                .Where(t => t.FieldType == typeof(TDerived));

                foreach (var field in fields)
                {

                    TDerived instance = (TDerived)field.GetValue(null);
                    instance._name = field.Name;
                    instance._descriptionAttribute = field.GetAttribute<DescriptionAttribute>();

                    var displayName = field.Name.ToPhrase();
                }
                _isInitialized = true;
            }
        }

        #endregion

        #region Conversion and Equality

        public static TDerived Convert(TValue value)
        {
            return _values[value];
        }

        public static bool TryConvert(TValue value, out TDerived result)
        {
            return _values.TryGetValue(value, out result);
        }

        public static implicit operator TValue(RichEnum<TValue, TDerived> value)
        {
            return value.Value;
        }

        public static implicit operator RichEnum<TValue, TDerived>(TValue value)
        {
            return _values[value];
        }

        public static implicit operator TDerived(RichEnum<TValue, TDerived> value)
        {
            return value;
        }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return _name;
        }

        #endregion

        #region IEquatable<TDerived> Members

        public override bool Equals(object obj)
        {
            if (obj != null)
            {
                if (obj is TValue)
                    return Value.Equals((TValue)obj);

                if (obj is TDerived)
                    return Value.Equals(((TDerived)obj).Value);
            }
            return false;
        }

        bool IEquatable<TDerived>.Equals(TDerived other)
        {
            return Value.Equals(other.Value);
        }


        public override int GetHashCode()
        {
            return Value.GetHashCode();
        }

        #endregion

        #region IComparable Members

        int IComparable<TDerived>.CompareTo(TDerived other)
        {
            return Value.CompareTo(other.Value);
        }

        int IComparable.CompareTo(object obj)
        {
            if (obj != null)
            {
                if (obj is TValue)
                    return Value.CompareTo((TValue)obj);

                if (obj is TDerived)
                    return Value.CompareTo(((TDerived)obj).Value);
            }
            return -1;
        }

        int IComparer<TDerived>.Compare(TDerived x, TDerived y)
        {
            return (x == null) ? -1 :
                   (y == null) ? 1 :
                    x.Value.CompareTo(y.Value);
        }

        #endregion

        public static IEnumerable<TDerived> Values
        {
            get
            {
                return _values.Values;
            }
        }

        public static TDerived Parse(string name)
        {
            foreach (TDerived value in _values.Values)
                if (0 == string.Compare(value.Name, name, true) || 0 == string.Compare(value.DisplayName, name, true))
                    return value;

            return null;
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

You can't do implict conversions (except for zero), and you can't write your own instance methods - however, you can probably write your own extension methods:

public enum MyEnum { A, B, C }
public static class MyEnumExt
{
    public static int Value(this MyEnum foo) { return (int)foo; }
    static void Main()
    {
        MyEnum val = MyEnum.A;
        int i = val.Value();
    }
}

This doesn't give you a lot, though (compared to just doing an explicit cast).

One of the main times I've seen people want this is for doing [Flags] manipulation via generics - i.e. a bool IsFlagSet<T>(T value, T flag); method. Unfortunately, C# 3.0 doesn't support operators on generics, but you can get around this using things like this, which make operators fully available with generics.

Answer 3

struct PseudoEnum
{
    public const int 
              INPT = 0,
              CTXT = 1,
              OUTP = 2;
};

// ...

var arr = new String[3];

arr[PseudoEnum.CTXT] = "can";
arr[PseudoEnum.INPT] = "use";
arr[PseudoEnum.CTXT] = "as";
arr[PseudoEnum.CTXT] = "array";
arr[PseudoEnum.OUTP] = "index";

Answer 4

I adapted Mark's excellent RichEnum generic baseclass.

Fixing

1. a number of compilation problems due to missing bits from his libraries (notably: the resource dependent display names weren't completely removed; they are now)
2. initialization wasn't perfect: if the first thing you did was access the static .Values property from the base class, you'd get a NPE. Fixed this by forcing the base class to curiously-recursively (CRTP) force the static construction of TDerived just in time during CheckInitialized
3. finally moved CheckInitialized logic into a static constructor (to avoid the penalty of checking each time, the race condition on multithreaded initialization; perhaps this was an impossibility solved by my bullet 1.?)

Kudos to Mark for the splendid idea + implementation, here's to you all:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Resources;

namespace NMatrix
{

    [DebuggerDisplay("{Value} ({Name})")]
    public abstract class RichEnum<TValue, TDerived>
                : IEquatable<TDerived>,
                  IComparable<TDerived>,
                  IComparable, IComparer<TDerived>
        where TValue : struct, IComparable<TValue>, IEquatable<TValue>
        where TDerived : RichEnum<TValue, TDerived>
    {
        #region Backing Fields

        /// <summary>
        /// The value of the enum item
        /// </summary>
        public readonly TValue Value;

        /// <summary>
        /// The public field name, determined from reflection
        /// </summary>
        private string _name;

        /// <summary>
        /// The DescriptionAttribute, if any, linked to the declaring field
        /// </summary>
        private DescriptionAttribute _descriptionAttribute;

        /// <summary>
        /// Reverse lookup to convert values back to local instances
        /// </summary>
        private static readonly SortedList<TValue, TDerived> _values = new SortedList<TValue, TDerived>();

        #endregion

        #region Constructors

        protected RichEnum(TValue value)
        {
            this.Value = value;
            _values.Add(value, (TDerived)this);
        }

        #endregion

        #region Properties

        public string Name
        {
            get
            {
                return _name;
            }
        }

        public string Description
        {
            get
            {
                if (_descriptionAttribute != null)
                    return _descriptionAttribute.Description;

                return _name;
            }
        }

        #endregion

        #region Initialization

        static RichEnum()
        {
            var fields = typeof(TDerived)
                .GetFields(BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.GetField | BindingFlags.Public)
                .Where(t => t.FieldType == typeof(TDerived));

            foreach (var field in fields)
            {
                /*var dummy =*/ field.GetValue(null); // forces static initializer to run for TDerived

                TDerived instance = (TDerived)field.GetValue(null);
                instance._name = field.Name;
                                    instance._descriptionAttribute = field.GetCustomAttributes(true).OfType<DescriptionAttribute>().FirstOrDefault();
            }
        }

        #endregion

        #region Conversion and Equality

        public static TDerived Convert(TValue value)
        {
            return _values[value];
        }

        public static bool TryConvert(TValue value, out TDerived result)
        {
            return _values.TryGetValue(value, out result);
        }

        public static implicit operator TValue(RichEnum<TValue, TDerived> value)
        {
            return value.Value;
        }

        public static implicit operator RichEnum<TValue, TDerived>(TValue value)
        {
            return _values[value];
        }

        public static implicit operator TDerived(RichEnum<TValue, TDerived> value)
        {
            return value;
        }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return _name;
        }

        #endregion

        #region IEquatable<TDerived> Members

        public override bool Equals(object obj)
        {
            if (obj != null)
            {
                if (obj is TValue)
                    return Value.Equals((TValue)obj);

                if (obj is TDerived)
                    return Value.Equals(((TDerived)obj).Value);
            }
            return false;
        }

        bool IEquatable<TDerived>.Equals(TDerived other)
        {
            return Value.Equals(other.Value);
        }


        public override int GetHashCode()
        {
            return Value.GetHashCode();
        }

        #endregion

        #region IComparable Members

        int IComparable<TDerived>.CompareTo(TDerived other)
        {
            return Value.CompareTo(other.Value);
        }

        int IComparable.CompareTo(object obj)
        {
            if (obj != null)
            {
                if (obj is TValue)
                    return Value.CompareTo((TValue)obj);

                if (obj is TDerived)
                    return Value.CompareTo(((TDerived)obj).Value);
            }
            return -1;
        }

        int IComparer<TDerived>.Compare(TDerived x, TDerived y)
        {
            return (x == null) ? -1 :
                   (y == null) ? 1 :
                    x.Value.CompareTo(y.Value);
        }

        #endregion

        public static IEnumerable<TDerived> Values
        {
            get
            {
                return _values.Values;
            }
        }

        public static TDerived Parse(string name)
        {
            foreach (TDerived value in Values)
                if (0 == string.Compare(value.Name, name, true))
                    return value;

            return null;
        }
    }
}

A sample of usage that I ran on mono:

using System.ComponentModel;
using System;

namespace NMatrix
{    
    public sealed class MyEnum : RichEnum<int, MyEnum>
    {
        [Description("aap")]  public static readonly MyEnum my_aap   = new MyEnum(63000);
        [Description("noot")] public static readonly MyEnum my_noot  = new MyEnum(63001);
        [Description("mies")] public static readonly MyEnum my_mies  = new MyEnum(63002);

        private MyEnum(int value) : base (value) { } 
        public static implicit operator MyEnum(int value) { return Convert(value); }
    }

    public static class Program
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            foreach (var enumvalue in MyEnum.Values)
                Console.WriteLine("MyEnum {0}: {1} ({2})", (int) enumvalue, enumvalue, enumvalue.Description);
        }
    }
}

Producing the output

[mono] ~/custom/demo @ gmcs test.cs richenum.cs && ./test.exe 
MyEnum 63000: my_aap (aap)
MyEnum 63001: my_noot (noot)
MyEnum 63002: my_mies (mies)

Note: mono 2.6.7 requires an extra explicit cast that is not required when using mono 2.8.2...

Answer 5

You probably could, but not for the enum (you can't add a method to it). You could add an implicit conversion to you own class to allow an enum to be converted to it,

public class MyClass {

    public static implicit operator MyClass ( MyEnum input ) {
        //...
    }
}

MyClass m = MyEnum.One;

The question would be why?

In general .Net avoids (and you should too) any implicit conversion where data can be lost.

Answer 6

If you define the base of the enum as a long then you can perform explicit conversion. I don't know if you can use implicit conversions as enums cannot have methods defined on them.

public enum MyEnum : long
{
    one = 1,
    two = 2,
}

MyEnum number = MyEnum.one;
long i = (long)number;

Also, be aware with this that an uninitalised enumeration will default to the 0 value, or the first item - so in the situation above it would probably be best to define zero = 0 as well.

Answer 7

You cannot declare implicit conversions on enum types, because they can't define methods. The C# implicit keyword compiles into a method starting with 'op_', and it wouldn't work in this case.

Answer 8

I've worked around an issue with sehe's answer when running the code on MS .net (non-Mono). For me specifically the issue occurred on .net 4.5.1 but other versions seem affected, too.

The issue

accessing a public static TDervied MyEnumValue by reflection (via FieldInfo.GetValue(null) does not initialize said field.

The workaround

Instead of assigning names to TDerived instances upon the static initializer of RichEnum<TValue, TDerived> this is done lazily on first access of TDerived.Name. The code:

public abstract class RichEnum<TValue, TDerived> : EquatableBase<TDerived>
    where TValue : struct, IComparable<TValue>, IEquatable<TValue>
    where TDerived : RichEnum<TValue, TDerived>
{
    // Enforcing that the field Name (´SomeEnum.SomeEnumValue´) is the same as its 
    // instances ´SomeEnum.Name´ is done by the static initializer of this class.
    // Explanation of initialization sequence:
    // 1. the static initializer of ´RichEnum<TValue, TDerived>´ reflects TDervied and 
    //    creates a list of all ´public static TDervied´ fields:
    //   ´EnumInstanceToNameMapping´
    // 2. the static initializer of ´TDerive´d assigns values to these fields
    // 3. The user is now able to access the values of a field.
    //    Upon first access of ´TDervied.Name´ we search the list 
    //    ´EnumInstanceToNameMapping´ (created at step 1) for the field that holds
    //    ´this´ instance of ´TDerived´.
    //    We then get the Name for ´this´ from the FieldInfo
    private static readonly IReadOnlyCollection<EnumInstanceReflectionInfo> 
                            EnumInstanceToNameMapping = 
        typeof(TDerived)
            .GetFields(BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.GetField | BindingFlags.Public)
            .Where(t => t.FieldType == typeof(TDerived))
            .Select(fieldInfo => new EnumInstanceReflectionInfo(fieldInfo))
            .ToList();

    private static readonly SortedList<TValue, TDerived> Values =
        new SortedList<TValue, TDerived>();

    public readonly TValue Value;

    private readonly Lazy<string> _name;

    protected RichEnum(TValue value)
    {
        Value = value;

        // SortedList doesn't allow duplicates so we don't need to do
        // duplicate checking ourselves
        Values.Add(value, (TDerived)this);

        _name = new Lazy<string>(
                    () => EnumInstanceToNameMapping
                         .First(x => ReferenceEquals(this, x.Instance))
                         .Name);
    }

    public string Name
    {
        get { return _name.Value; }
    }

    public static implicit operator TValue(RichEnum<TValue, TDerived> richEnum)
    {
        return richEnum.Value;
    }

    public static TDerived Convert(TValue value)
    {
        return Values[value];
    }

    protected override bool Equals(TDerived other)
    {
        return Value.Equals(other.Value);
    }

    protected override int ComputeHashCode()
    {
        return Value.GetHashCode();
    }

    private class EnumInstanceReflectionInfo
    {
        private readonly FieldInfo _field;
        private readonly Lazy<TDerived> _instance;

        public EnumInstanceReflectionInfo(FieldInfo field)
        {
            _field = field;
            _instance = new Lazy<TDerived>(() => (TDerived)field.GetValue(null));
        }

        public TDerived Instance
        {
            get { return _instance.Value; }
        }

        public string Name { get { return _field.Name; } }
    }
}

which - in my case - is based upon EquatableBase<T>:

public abstract class EquatableBase<T>
    where T : class 
{
    public override bool Equals(object obj)
    {
        if (this == obj)
        {
            return true;
        }

        T other = obj as T;
        if (other == null)
        {
            return false;
        }

        return Equals(other);
    }

    protected abstract bool Equals(T other);

    public override int GetHashCode()
    {
        unchecked
        {
            return ComputeHashCode();
        }
    }

    protected abstract int ComputeHashCode();
}

Note

The above code does not incorporate all features of Mark's original answer!

Thanks

Thanks to Mark for providing his RichEnum implementation and thanks to sehe for providing some improvements!

Answer 9

I found even easier solution taken from here https://codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/7566/enum-vs-int-wrapper-struct I pasted the code below from that link just in case it does not work in the future.

struct Day
{
    readonly int day;

    public static readonly Day Monday = 0;
    public static readonly Day Tuesday = 1;
    public static readonly Day Wednesday = 2;
    public static readonly Day Thursday = 3;
    public static readonly Day Friday = 4;
    public static readonly Day Saturday = 5;
    public static readonly Day Sunday = 6;

    private Day(int day)
    {
        this.day = day;
    }

    public static implicit operator int(Day value)
    {
        return value.day;
    }

    public static implicit operator Day(int value)
    {
        return new Day(value);
    }
}

Answer 10

enums are largely useless for me because of this, OP.

I end up doing pic-related all the time:

the simple solution

classic example problem is the VirtualKey set for detecting keypresses.

enum VKeys : ushort
{
a = 1,
b = 2,
c = 3
}
// the goal is to index the array using predefined constants
int[] array = new int[500];
var x = array[VKeys.VK_LSHIFT]; 

problem here is you can't index the array with the enum because it can't implicitly convert enum to ushort (even though we even based the enum on ushort)

in this specific context, enums are obsoleted by the following datastructure . . . .

public static class VKeys
{
public const ushort
a = 1,
b = 2, 
c = 3;
}

Answer 11

Introducing implicit conversions for enum types would break type safety, so I'd not recommend to do that. Why would you want to do that? The only use case for this I've seen is when you want to put the enum values into a structure with a pre-defined layout. But even then, you can use the enum type in the structure and just tell the Marshaller what he should do with this.