Setting an enum as another enum within a C# class

Question

I'm currently working on a C# program that utilizes a fair number of enums. It's organized in such a way that a class contains many enums, and there are several of these classes. However, a couple enums are identical between the two--for organizational purposes, it would be nice to have a kind of 'SharedEnums' class, and then do something like this:

public class FirstEnumCollection {
 public enum Fruits = SharedEnums.Fruits;
 //insert non-shared enums here
}
public class FirstEnumCollection {
 public enum Fruits = SharedEnums.Fruits;
 //insert non-shared enums here
}
public class SharedEnums { 
 public enum Fruits {
 Apple,
 Pear
 }
}

This way, we won't have the same enums declared multiple times across classes, and changing the shared enum will change the enum in both classes. I've tried several variations of my example without luck, and I'm fairly certain it can't be done, but would like confirmation.

• SLaks: Why not use it directly?
• Sam I am says Reinstate Monica: you don't even need to put the enums in a class

Answer 1

An enum doesn't need to "belong" to a class. You can declare it outside of any class:

public enum Fruits {
 Apple,
 Pear
}

and then use it within any class.

• lionheartdamacy: The class is intended to be more of an organizational tool than anything--all the enums are declared within some 'MyEnums' namespace, with each class representing where the enum will be used in the application (I've trivialized the names here). So the enum never gets used directly in the 'FirstEnumCollection' but rather used by other classes.
• Scott Hannen: In that case there's no need to use a class as a namespace. That's necessary with constants but not enums. Namespaces exist largely for that purpose. But primarily they disambiguate when you have two entities with the same name. But if you have two enums that are the same and you want to set one equal to the other there's no need for it. It's just increased maintenance. Better to just have the one.

Answer 2

An enum can be defined at namespace scope, you are not required to create an enum inside a class. You can imagine an enum like a struct, or a class, it's a type that you can use in the code. So, define it at namespace scope

namespace MyCode
{
 public enum Days { M, T, W, T, F, Sa, Su }
}