Why does enum declaration accept short but not Int16

Question

I want to declare a new enum with non-default underlying type. This works:

public enum MyEnum : short
{ A, B, C, }

But I don't understand the reason why this doesn't compile:

public enum MyEnum : System.Int16
{ A, B, C, }

Compiler says

Type byte, sbyte, short, ushort, int, uint, long, or ulong expected

I understand that short is an alias for Int16 on all .NET versions (32/64 bit flavors included). I don't see why the compiler gives a different meaning to the alias in that particular case.

Any explanation?

I found two almost identical questions using Google: stackoverflow.com/questions/3774650/enum-members-of-int32-type and stackoverflow.com/questions/1813408/c-int-int32-and-enums. — Daniel Daranas
I didn't find it despite several minutes spent on reading search results :) — Johann Blais
@Daniel Daranas, sorry I searched using int16 as a keyword... it might explain why I didn't find them — Johann Blais

Daniel Daranas Daniel Daranas · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-01T09:54:49

The syntax is correct. C# specification explicitly states that the enum's underlying type must be byte, sbyte, short, ushort, int, uint, long or ulong.

Read what Microsoft says about this here.

Why does enum declaration accept short but not Int16

2 Answers