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Enum.GetUnderlyingType Method

.NET Framework 4

Other Versions

Updated: June 2011

Returns the underlying type of the specified enumeration.

Namespace: System
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

Syntax

C++

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[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
public static Type GetUnderlyingType(
	Type enumType
)

Parameters

enumType: Type: System.Type
The enumeration whose underlying type will be retrieved.

Return Value

Type: System.Type
The underlying type of enumType.

Exceptions

Exception	Condition
ArgumentNullException	enumType is null.
ArgumentException	enumType is not an Enum.

Remarks

The Enum structure enables values to be represented as named constants. The data type of the enumeration's values is known as its underlying type. For example, the underlying type of the DayOfWeek enumeration, which consists of constants that represent each day of the week (DayOfWeek.Monday, DayOfWeek.Tuesday, and so on), is Int32.

Examples

The following example calls the GetUnderlyingType method to display the underlying type of some enumeration members.

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using System;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      Enum[] enumValues = { ConsoleColor.Red, DayOfWeek.Monday, 
                            MidpointRounding.ToEven, PlatformID.Win32NT, 
                            DateTimeKind.Utc, StringComparison.Ordinal };
      Console.WriteLine("{0,-10} {1, 18}   {2,15}\n", 
                        "Member", "Enumeration", "Underlying Type");
      foreach (var enumValue in enumValues)
         DisplayEnumInfo(enumValue);
   }

   static void DisplayEnumInfo(Enum enumValue)
   {
      Type enumType = enumValue.GetType();
      Type underlyingType = Enum.GetUnderlyingType(enumType);
      Console.WriteLine("{0,-10} {1, 18}   {2,15}",
                        enumValue, enumType.Name, underlyingType.Name);   
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       Member            Enumeration   Underlying Type
//       
//       Red              ConsoleColor             Int32
//       Monday              DayOfWeek             Int32
//       ToEven       MidpointRounding             Int32
//       Win32NT            PlatformID             Int32
//       Utc              DateTimeKind             Int32
//       Ordinal      StringComparison             Int32

Version Information

.NET Framework

Supported in: 4, 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Framework Client Profile

Supported in: 4, 3.5 SP1

Portable Class Library

Supported in: Portable Class Library

Platforms

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP SP2 x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.