What is Enum keyword used for?

 An enum is a special "class" that represents a group of constants.

 

The enum keyword in C# is used to define an enumerated type, also known as an enumeration. An enumeration is a distinct type that represents a set of named constant values. It allows you to define a collection of related values that can be assigned to a variable, parameter, or property.

Here's an example of defining and using an enum:

public enum DaysOfWeek
{
    Monday,
    Tuesday,
    Wednesday,
    Thursday,
    Friday,
    Saturday,
    Sunday
}

In this example, we define an enum called DaysOfWeek that represents the days of the week. The enum consists of a set of named constants (Monday, Tuesday, etc.) that represent the possible values for a variable of type DaysOfWeek.

You can use the enum in your code as follows:

DaysOfWeek today = DaysOfWeek.Wednesday;

if (today == DaysOfWeek.Saturday || today == DaysOfWeek.Sunday)
{
    Console.WriteLine("It's the weekend!");
}
else
{
    Console.WriteLine("It's a weekday.");
}

In this code snippet, we assign the value DaysOfWeek.Wednesday to the today variable. We then use the enum values to perform a comparison to determine whether it's the weekend or a weekday.

Enums provide several benefits, including:

Readability: Enums make code more readable by giving meaningful names to values, improving code understanding and maintainability.

Type safety: Enums provide type safety because the compiler enforces that values assigned to an enum variable are valid within the enum's defined set of values.

Intellisense support: Enum values are presented in IntelliSense, making it easier to select the desired value.

Switch statements: Enums can be used in switch statements, allowing you to write cleaner and more readable code when handling different cases.

Enums are commonly used to represent a finite set of related values, such as days of the week, months, status codes, error types, and more. They provide a convenient and expressive way to work with a predefined set of options in your code.