Question

I have the next object:

private enum Operation
{
        Power = 0x5E,             // ^
        Division = 0x2F,          // /
        Multiplication = 0x2A,    // *
        Subtraction = 0x2D,      // -
        Addition = 0x2B           // +
}

When I want to convert it into a char[] in the next way:

private static char[] GetOperators()
{
        List<char> ExistingOperators = new List<char>();

        foreach (Operation enumOperator in Enum.GetValues(typeof(Operation)))
        {
                ExistingOperators.Add((char)enumOperator);
                Console.WriteLine(enumOperator);
        }

        return ExistingOperators.ToArray<char>();
}

It writes on the console the values of the enums, but in sorted from small to big.
The above example outputs:

Multiplication
Addition
Subtraction
Divison
Power

What I want to achieve: (so the array is in the same order as the enum declaration)

char[] { '^', '/', '*', '*', '-', '*' };

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The elements of the array are sorted by the binary values of the enumeration constants (that is, by their unsigned magnitude).

Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.enum.getvalues.aspx