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What is the [Flags] attribute in an enumeration for?

Amit Mishra

Hi, I'm curious what the [Flags] attribute in an enumeration is for. The sample given runs correctly whether or not I provide the attribute. I realize what its used for i.e. bitwise operations to represent combinations but it works just as fine without the attribute. Thanks amit

1 Reply

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andrew23y ago
This is used so that you can have more than one enumeration value. For example, anchor for control you can set: Anchor = AnchorStyle.Left | AnchorStyles.Top without the Flags attribute, Anchor would only be able to hold 1 value from the AnchorStyles. I don't think C# compiler enforces this, so this is for information purposes only. If you see enumeration with [Flags] set it means you can assign multiple values by using OR (|)
+1