Iterate over enum?

Question

I'm trying to iterate over an enum, and call a method using each of its values as a parameter. There has to be a better way to do it than what I have now:

foreach (string gameObjectType in Enum.GetNames(typeof(GameObjectType)))
{
     GameObjectType kind = (GameObjectType) Enum.Parse(typeof (GameObjectType), gameObjectType);
     IDictionary<string, string> gameObjectData = PersistentUtils.LoadGameObject(kind, persistentState);
}

//...

public static IDictionary<string, string> LoadGameObject(GameObjectType gameObjectType, IPersistentState persistentState) { /* ... */ }

Getting the enum names as strings, then parsing them back to enums, feels hideous.

Answer 1

Well, you can use Enum.GetValues:

foreach (GameObjectType type in Enum.GetValues(typeof(GameObjectType))
{
    ...
}

It's not strongly typed though - and IIRC it's pretty slow. An alternative is to use my UnconstrainedMelody project:

// Note that type will be inferred as GameObjectType :)
foreach (var type in Enums.GetValues<GameObjectType>())
{
    ...
}

UnconstrainedMelody is nice if you're doing a lot of work with enums, but it might be overkill for a single usage...