What are Enumerations in VB.NET and how are they used?

Question

hi......... i want known about the Enumeration in vb.net and know the functionality of enumeration.

Vulpes · Answer

An Enumeration (or Enum) in VB.NET is a special value type consisting of a number of named integer constants. For example: Enum Colors Red = 1 Green = 2 Blue = 3 End Enum Dim c As Colors = Colors.Red If you don't specify the values of the constants then the first one is taken to have a value of 0 and the remainder then add 1 to the previous value. For example: Enum Cars Toyota Kia Ford End Enum Here Toyota has a value of 0 Kia 1 and Ford 2. The underlying base type of an Enum is Integer unless you specify some other integral type when you declare it: Enum Companies As Byte Microsoft = 1 Apple = 2 End Enum Although Enums are value types they derive from a special class called System.Enum which contains a number of Shared methods (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.enum.aspx ). Enums are useful because they enable you to give a group of related integer constants meaningful names - you don't have to remember the values themselves.