C# Public Enums in Classes

Question

I have a program with a class that contains a public enum, as follows:

public class Card
{
    public enum card_suits
    {
        Clubs,
        Hearts,
        Spades,
        Diamonds
    }
...

I want to use this elsewhere in my project, but can't do that without using Card.card_suit. Does anyone know if there's a way in C# to declare this so that I am able to declare

card_suits suit;

Without referencing the class that it's in?

Answer 1

Currently, your enum is nested inside of your Card class. All you have to do is move the definition of the enum out of the class:

// A better name which follows conventions instead of card_suits is
public enum CardSuit
{
    Clubs,
    Hearts,
    Spades,
    Diamonds
}

public class Card
{
}

To Specify:

The name change from card_suits to CardSuit was suggested because Microsoft guidelines suggest Pascal Case for Enumerations and the singular form is more descriptive in this case (as a plural would suggest that you're storing multiple enumeration values by ORing them together).

Answer 2

You need to define the enum outside of the class.

public enum card_suits
{
    Clubs,
    Hearts,
    Spades,
    Diamonds
}

public class Card
{
     // ...

That being said, you may also want to consider using the standard naming guidelines for Enums, which would be CardSuit instead of card_suits, since Pascal Casing is suggested, and the enum is not marked with the FlagsAttribute, suggesting multiple values are appropriate in a single variable.

Answer 3

Just do this: (Declare the enum outside the bounds of the class.)

public enum card_suits
{
    Clubs,
    Hearts,
    Spades,
    Diamonds
}

public class Card
{

...

Remember that an enum is a type. You might also consider putting in its own file if it's going to be used frequently by many other classes. (From the looks of it i'm guessing that it will.)