Just used this for something I’m working on and thought I better write the details down due to a slight oddity I found while using it.
Note that the important point that you need to remember is that you must start the numbering at 1… not 0(zero)!!!
Take a flags enum like this:
[Flags]
public enum MyFlagsEnum
{
Archived = 1,
Closed = 2,
Open = 4
}
The important thing about the above is that I’ve specified the values and started at one(1) Don’t start with zero(0)
Another way to do this (especially if you’ve got a fair few items:
[Flags]
public enum MyFlagsEnum
{
Archived = 1,
Closed = 1 << 1,
Open = 1 << 2
}
Which generated the same enumeration with the same values.
If you want to combine values into another option, you can do this…
[Flags]
public enum MyFlagsEnum
{
Archived = 1,
Closed = 1 << 1,
Open = 1 << 2,
All = Archived | Closed | Open
}
The following unit test shows assigning of a new variable of type MyFlagsEnum and assigns the Open and Archived option…
[TestMethod]
public void OpenAndArchived()
{
MyFlagsEnum options = MyFlagsEnum.Open | MyFlagsEnum.Archived;
Assert.IsTrue((options & MyFlagsEnum.Open) == MyFlagsEnum.Open);
Assert.IsFalse((options & MyFlagsEnum.Closed) == MyFlagsEnum.Closed);
Assert.IsTrue((options & MyFlagsEnum.Archived) == MyFlagsEnum.Archived);
}
As you can see you do this by ORing the flags together
MyFlagsEnum options = MyFlagsEnum.Open | MyFlagsEnum.Archived;
To test whether the options variable has the Open flag you AND the option against the type that you want to check the variable contains (for lack of a better word!) This anding should return either zero(0) which is why you don’t want to include an enum with a value of zero(0), or will return just the value you are looking for (The ANDing essentially returns a MyFlagsEnum(in this case) which doesn’t includes the value of only the item that you ANDed the variable with)
Assert.IsTrue((options & MyFlagsEnum.Open) == MyFlagsEnum.Open);
