Question

I’m just curious why this code…

    enum Tile { Empty, White, Black };
    private string TileToString(Tile t)
    {
        switch (t)
        {
            case Tile.Empty:
                return ".";
            case Tile.White:
                return "W";
            case Tile.Black:
                return "B";
        }
    }

Throws that error. It’s not possible for t to take on any other value, is it? Shouldn’t the compiler be clever enough to figure that out?

Answer 1

No, you can use any int value converted to Tile. Try this:

Tile t = (Tile) 5;
string s = TileToString(t);

An enum is a set of names for numbers, effectively… but neither the compiler nor the CLR enforces that a value of the enum type has a name. It’s a pain, but there it is…

I would suggest a default case which threw ArgumentException (or possibly ArgumentOutOfRangeException).