Question

I am trying to develop a Windows 8 App in Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8 using C#/XAML, and I am facing some problems while doing so.

I am from a Java background and have little knowledge of C#. I am trying to translate Java Enum to C#.

I stumbled upon Jon Skeet’s Article which fits in my exact requirement. But from the comments and answers of this question, I realised that it’s a proposed idea. My bad! 🙂

However, the closest translation I found after the above article is this one:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/4778347/1127443

But even with the above implementation, VS cannot find the getCustomAttribute() method in Attribute.

How can I implement the idea of Java Enums in C# where common fields and abstract functions can be defined? Basically, I want to bring back the idea of enums as a set of allowed instances of a particular class with specific implementations.

Answer 1

Here is what I would do to be as close to your code as possible:

Don´t use enum, but create a static class with some constant fields:

    public static class ArithmeticOperation
    {
        public static const Func<int, int, int> Addition = (x, y) => x+y;
        public static const Func<int, int, int> Subtraction = (x, y) => x - y;
        public static const Func<int, int, int> Multiplication = (x, y) => x * y;
        public static const Func<int, int, int> Division = (x, y) => x / y;
    }

You can use it just like any other method:

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var result = ArithmeticOperation.Addition(1, 2);
    }

Or use it in a parameter just like an enum:

    private int DoCalculation(Func<int, int, int> operation)
    {
           return operation(1, 2);
    }

    ...

     DoCalculation(ArithmeticOperations.Addition);

You can pass any Func<int, int, int> as a parameter, not only ArithmeticOperation´s property.