What are enumerations in Visual Basic/C#?

[Ben Stones]

Enumerations are constant values that you can define in your application. There are many benefits of using enumerations in certain situations, including greater readability and reduced code clutter because all related values can be defined in an enumeration. An example enumerated list:

Public Class Demo
    Enum Groups
        Member
        Moderator
        Administrator
    End Enum 

    Public Sub Output()
       TxtBlock.Text = Groups.Member
    End Sub
End Class

You can also declare your own variables with a data type of the Enum created above. For example:

Public Class Demo
    Enum Groups
        Member
        Moderator
        Administrator
    End Enum 

    Public Sub Output()
       Dim GroupList As Groups = Groups.Moderator
       TxtBlock.Text = GroupList
    End Sub
End Class

The examples above use Visual Basic, but the concept remains much the same in C#:

public enum Groups
{
   Member,
   Moderator,
   Administrator
}