Question

I have the following statement:

private Enum _statusValue;

What I’d really like to say is:

private Enum _statusValue = 0;

even though I know it’s redundant. It’s just that I like to explicitly specify the initialization.

But that is not allowed.

Is there some simple way of specifying the initialization on this kind of declaration?

EDIT – Let me try again.

Here is a contrived / simplified example of what I’m doing.

using System;

namespace EnumTesting
{
   public enum EFixedPhoneUsability
   {
      UnknownValue,       // Should not occur?
      IsUsable,           // User is near the telephone
      NotUsable,          // User not near the telephone
      BeingUsed,          // Busy
      DoNotDisturb,       // This is phone physical state, not user attitude
      CallsForwarded      // This is phone physical state
   }

   public enum EMobilePhoneConnectivity
   {
      UnknownValue,       // Should not occur?
      OnNetIdle,          // I.e., usable
      OnNetBusy,          // Being used
      NoConnection        // Turned off, in elevator or tunnel or far from civilization
   }

   public class Program
   {
      public Enum StatusValue;

      static void Main(string[] args)
      {
         Program p = new Program();

         p.StatusValue = EMobilePhoneConnectivity.NoConnection;

         int i = (int) (EMobilePhoneConnectivity) p.StatusValue;

         p.StatusValue = EFixedPhoneUsability.DoNotDisturb;

         i = (int) (EFixedPhoneUsability) p.StatusValue;
      }
   }
}

So my question is, can I add a generic initializer to this statement?

      public Enum StatusValue;

SECOND EDIT:

Never mind, I have discovered the error of my ways, thanks to this posting:

How to convert from System.Enum to base integer?

The key phrase, which made me realize what I was doing wrong, is this: “enumerations are value types (and internally represented only by integer constants) while System.Enum is a reference type”.

So I do not want to say this:

private Enum _statusValue = 0;

I want to say this, which is perfectly valid:

private Enum _statusValue = null;

Thank you to those who tried to help.

Answer 1

My question was basically in error. I had mistakenly thought Enum (like enums) was a value type, but it is actually a reference type.

So I do not want to say this:

private Enum _statusValue = 0; 

I want to say this, which is perfectly valid:

private Enum _statusValue = null; 

Thank you to those who tried to help.