Question

Are C# enums typesafe?

If not what are the implications?

Answer 1

To give a slightly different answer… while the values are type-safe from the casting perspective, they are still unchecked once they have been cast – i.e.

enum Foo { A = 1, B = 2, C = 3 }     static void Main() {     Foo foo = (Foo)500; // works fine     Console.WriteLine(foo); // also fine - shows 500 } 

For this reason, you should take care to check the values – for example with a default in a switch that throws an exception.

You can also check the (for non-[Flags] values) via:

bool isValid = Enum.IsDefined(typeof(Foo), foo);