Why are flag enums usually defined with hexadecimal values
.net, c#, enum-flags, enums
Solution
Rationales may differ, but an advantage I see is that hexadecimal reminds you: "Okay, we're not dealing with numbers in the arbitrary human-invented world of base ten anymore. We're dealing with bits - the machine's world - and we're gonna play by its rules." Hexadecimal is rarely used unless you're dealing with relatively low-level topics where the memory layout of data matters. Using it hints at the fact that that's the situation we're in now.
Also, i'm not sure about C#, but I know that in C `x << y` is a valid compile-time constant. Using bit shifts seems the most clear:
[Flags]
public enum MyEnum
{
None = 0,
Flag1 = 1 << 0, //1
Flag2 = 1 << 1, //2
Flag3 = 1 << 2, //4
Flag4 = 1 << 3, //8
Flag5 = 1 << 4 //16
}
Problem
A lot of times I see flag enum declarations that use hexadecimal values. For example: ``` [Flags] public enum MyEnum { None = 0x0, Flag1 = 0x1, Flag2 = 0x2, Flag3 = 0x4, Flag4 = 0x8, Flag5 = 0x10 } ``` When I declare an enum, I usually declare it like this: ``` [Flags] public enum MyEnum { None = 0, Flag1 = 1, Flag2 = 2, Flag3 = 4, Flag4 = 8, Flag5 = 16 } ``` Is there a reason or rationale to why some people choose to write the value in hexadecimal rather than decimal? The way I see it, it's easier to get confused when using hex values and accidentally write `Flag5 = 0x16` instead of `Flag5 = 0x10`.