Using dynamic enum as type in a parameter of a method

Question

What i am trying to achieve here is a bit tricky. Let me brief on a little background first before going ahead.

I am aware that we can use a enum as a type to a parameter of a method. For example I can do something like this (a very basic example)

namespace Test
{
    class DefineEnums
    {
        public enum MyEnum
        {
            value1 = 0,
            value2 = 1
        }
    }
    class UseEnums
    {
        public void UseDefinedEnums(DefineEnums.MyEnum _enum)
        { 
            //Any code here.
        }

        public void Test()
        {
            // "value1" comes here with the intellisense.
            UseDefinedEnums(DefineEnums.MyEnum.value1);
        }
    }
}

What i need to do is create a dynamic Enum and use that as type in place of DefineEnums.MyEnum mentioned above.

I tried the following. 1. Used a method which i got from the net to create a dynamic enum from a list of strings. And created a static class which i can use.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Reflection.Emit;

namespace Test
{
    public static class DynamicEnum
    {

        public static Enum finished;
        static List<string> _lst = new List<string>();

        static DynamicEnum()
        {
            _lst.Add("value1");
            _lst.Add("value2");

            finished = CreateDynamicEnum(_lst);
        }

        public static Enum CreateDynamicEnum(List<string> _list)
        {
            // Get the current application domain for the current thread.
            AppDomain currentDomain = AppDomain.CurrentDomain;

            // Create a dynamic assembly in the current application domain, 
            // and allow it to be executed and saved to disk.
            AssemblyName aName = new AssemblyName("TempAssembly");
            AssemblyBuilder ab = currentDomain.DefineDynamicAssembly(
                aName, AssemblyBuilderAccess.RunAndSave);

            // Define a dynamic module in "TempAssembly" assembly. For a single-
            // module assembly, the module has the same name as the assembly.
            ModuleBuilder mb = ab.DefineDynamicModule(aName.Name, aName.Name + ".dll");

            // Define a public enumeration with the name "Elevation" and an 
            // underlying type of Integer.
            EnumBuilder eb = mb.DefineEnum("Elevation", TypeAttributes.Public, typeof(int));

            // Define two members, "High" and "Low".
            //eb.DefineLiteral("Low", 0);
            //eb.DefineLiteral("High", 1);

            int i = 0;
            foreach (string item in _list)
            {
                eb.DefineLiteral(item, i);
                i++;
            }

            // Create the type and save the assembly.
            return (Enum)Activator.CreateInstance(eb.CreateType());
            //ab.Save(aName.Name + ".dll");


        }
    }
}

Tried using the class but i am unable to find the "finished" enum defined above. i.e. I am not able to do the following

        public static void TestDynEnum(Test.DynamicEnum.finished _finished)
        {
            // Do anything here with _finished.
        }

I guess the post has become too long but i hope i have made it quite clear.

there is a similar so question : stackoverflow.com/questions/725043/dynamic-enum-in-c — Alex Pacurar

Lasse V. Karlsen Lasse V. Karlsen · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-21T08:12:39

You'll either have to pass in an object, or create your method dynamically as well.

Might I ask why you can't just use an int for this? Seems like you're going to have to dynamically create a lot of code just to be able to pass it around as an enum.

Using dynamic enum as type in a parameter of a method

2 Answers