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EnumToList Extension Method

July 21, 2008 09:57 by author

While not the best solution I believe this is the only solution at this time due to the fact that enums are not instances of objects. Allows you to take an Enum and convert it to a Typed List which also gives you LINQabilty on it.

Usage:

var list = StringComparison.CurrentCulture.EnumToList();

foreach (var enumValue in list)

{

...

}

And the method:

/// <summary>

///     Converts a enum to a list

/// </summary>

/// <typeparam name="T">string name of type of Enum</typeparam>

/// <returns>An enumerable list of Enum Type "T"</returns>

/// <remarks>

///     Usage:

///     var list = StringComparison.CurrentCulture.EnumToList();

/// </remarks>

public static IEnumerable<T> EnumToList<T>(this T enumName) where T : struct

{

    Type enumType = enumName.GetType();

  

    // Can’t use generic type constraints on value types,

    // so have to do check like this

    if (enumType.BaseType != typeof (Enum))

        throw new ArgumentException(enumType + " is not an Enum.", "T", null);

  

    var enumValArray = Enum.GetValues(enumType);

    var enumValList = new List<T>(enumValArray.Length);

  

    foreach (int val in enumValArray)

    {

        enumValList.Add((T) Enum.Parse(enumType, val.ToString()));

    }

  

    return enumValList;

}