Question

Why is it that non-integral enums cannot be created? I want to know if this is a language design decision, or if there are issues with implementing this in the compiler.

In other words, is it feasible to implement non-integral enums into the language, but there just isn’t a justifiable need? Or if it isn’t feasible but is justifiable, what impediment are in the way?

Someone give me the skinny on what the reason or rationale is for not having this available in C#, pretty please.

Answer 1

Only the designers of the language can tell you why they didn’t allow for non-integral enumerations but I can tell you the most likely explanation.

The original C didn’t do it because it was unnecessary for its purposes (a systems programming language). C++ didn’t do it since it was based on C and you could emulate it with classes anyway. C# probably doesn’t do it for the same reasons.

This is just guesswork on my part since I wasn’t involved in the design of any of those languages.

Once you’ve decided to go the way of classes (DateTime), there’s little reason to not go all the way. If you want to use enum’s, you can create the enums as sequential integers starting with zero and have an array of DateTime values using those enums as indexes.

But I’d just have a Holiday class which provided the whole kit and kaboodle within the class: the constants, the get() routine to return a DateTime based on those constants and so on.

That gives you true encapsulation and the ability to chage the implementation totally without affecting the interface. Why toss away one of the benefits of OOP?