Help on Enumerations

namespace EnumExample
{
    class Program
    {
        public enum TimeOfDay
        {
            Morning = 0,
            Afternoon = 1,
            Evening = 2
        }
        static int Main(string[] args)
        {
            WriteGreeting(TimeOfDay.Morning);
            return 0;
        }
        static void WriteGreeting(TimeOfDay timeOfDay)
        {
            // the output through switch case is "Good morning!"
             switch(timeOfDay)
             {
                 case TimeOfDay.Morning:
                     Console.WriteLine("Good morning!");
                     break;
                 case TimeOfDay.Afternoon:
                     Console.WriteLine("Good afternoon!");
                     break;
                 case TimeOfDay.Evening:
                     Console.WriteLine("Good evening!");
                     break;
                 default:
                     Console.WriteLine("Hello!");
                     break;
             }

            // the output for following two lines is "Afternoon"

   TimeOfDay time = TimeOfDay.Afternoon;
             Console.WriteLine(time.ToString());            // ToString() method is used

            // the output of following two lines also "Afternoon"

   TimeOfDay time3 = TimeOfDay.Afternoon;
             Console.WriteLine(time3);                      // the same output is coming even the ToString() method was not used

            //==================================================================================


   // the output for following two lines is "2"

    TimeOfDay time2 = (TimeOfDay)Enum.Parse(typeof(TimeOfDay), "evening", true); // Enum.Parse method is used
             Console.WriteLine((int)time2);

// the output of following two lines also "2"

TimeOfDay time4 = TimeOfDay.Evening; // the same output is coming even the Enum.Parse method was not used

   Console.WriteLine((int)time4);

        }

    }
}

now my doubt is...
1) without using ToString() method also i'm getting same output "Afternoon".
2) without using Enum.Parse() method also i'm getiing same output "2".

then what are the cases that i can use this two methods???

please suggest me in this topic.....

thank you

ToString() method is by default included for every object, I think. Every class you create, its object will have a ToString method, because the class is automatically inherited from the Object class. The class on its own doesn't have it though, because ToString() isn't a static method.

The Enum.Parse method is simply for parsing, same as a lot of other types can parse from a string.
The output was "2" both times, because you used a cast, not because of parsing. If parsing failed, an exception would be thrown.

If you want the [0, n] sequence for the enumeration, then you don't have to assign a number to each value. enum is zero-based by default. And if you need [1, n] sequence, then assign 1 to first item, the rest will follow automatically.

1 Reply

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Jure16y ago
ToString() method is by default included for every object, I think. Every class you create, its object will have a ToString method, because the class is automatically inherited from the Object class. The class on its own doesn't have it though, because ToString() isn't a static method.

The Enum.Parse method is simply for parsing, same as a lot of other types can parse from a string.
The output was "2" both times, because you used a cast, not because of parsing. If parsing failed, an exception would be thrown.

If you want the [0, n] sequence for the enumeration, then you don't have to assign a number to each value. enum is zero-based by default. And if you need [1, n] sequence, then assign 1 to first item, the rest will follow automatically.
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