What is the default value for enum variable?
What is the default value for enum variable?
It is whatever member of the enumeration represents the value 0
. Specifically, from the documentation:
The default value of an
enum E
is the value produced by the expression(E)0
.
As an example, take the following enum:
enum E
{
Foo, Bar, Baz, Quux
}
Without overriding the default values, printing default(E)
returns Foo
since it's the first-occurring element.
However, it is not always the case that 0
of an enum is represented by the first member. For example, if you do this:
enum F
{
// Give each element a custom value
Foo = 1, Bar = 2, Baz = 3, Quux = 0
}
Printing default(F)
will give you Quux
, not Foo
.
If none of the elements in an enum G
correspond to 0
:
enum G
{
Foo = 1, Bar = 2, Baz = 3, Quux = 4
}
default(G)
returns literally 0
, although its type remains as G
(as quoted by the docs above, a cast to the given enum type).