Enumerations are one of many useful tools at the fingertips of developers. Most of us have been using them for years. Because they are so common and easy to use, I believe we sometimes overuse them. An enumeration at its core is merely a number value. Try this in C# and you will see how easy it is to convert between enumerations and integer values. Enumerations are useful because they are named collections of values which are associated under the surface with integer values.

This example shows how one could quickly and easily print out the names and number values of an enumeration.

Listing 1: Simple Enumeration Console Output

using System;
class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        HaveFunWithEnums();
    }
 
    public static void HaveFunWithEnums()
    {
            Console.WriteLine(MyEnum.Something);
            Console.WriteLine(MyEnum.SomethingElse);
            Console.WriteLine(MyEnum.AndNow);
            Console.WriteLine(MyEnum.ForSomething);
            Console.WriteLine(MyEnum.CompletelyDifferent);
            Console.WriteLine((int)MyEnum.Something);
            Console.WriteLine((int)MyEnum.SomethingElse);
            Console.WriteLine((int)MyEnum.AndNow);
            Console.WriteLine((int)MyEnum.ForSomething);
            Console.WriteLine((int)MyEnum.CompletelyDifferent);
    }
}
 
internal enum MyEnum
{
    Something,
    SomethingElse,
    AndNow,
    ForSomething,
    CompletelyDifferent
}

That is some very easy code, and I think most people have probably seen enumerations printed by name as well enums converted to integers and their values used. So if enums are so great, why would I write an article talking about a way of avoiding them? Well, I would first like to say that I am a big fan of enums. I think they are quite useful; they just have some risks as well as some circumstances under which they fall a little bit short as far as software design is concerned.