Enum.GetNames() results in unexpected order with negative enum constants
.net, c#, enums
Solution
This is a known bug with both `GetNames()` and `GetValues()` that was reported here, but ended up getting closed as won't fix:
Yes, this method indeed has a bug where it returns the array of enum values sorted as unsigned-types (-2 is 0xFFFFFFFE and -1 is 0xFFFFFFFF in two's complement, that's why they are showing up at the end of the list) instead of returning values sorted by their signed-types.
Unfortunately, we cannot change the sort order of GetValues because we will break all existing .NET programs that have been written to depend on the current sorting behavior [...]
Looks like you'll have to reorder the values yourself.
Problem
I have the following enum definition (in C#): ``` public enum ELogLevel { General = -1, // Should only be used in drop-down box in Merlinia Administrator log settings All = 0, // Should not be used as a level, only as a threshold, effectively same as Trace Trace = 1, Debug = 2, Info = 3, Warn = 4, Error = 5, Fatal = 6, Off = 7 // Should not be used as a level, only as a threshold } ``` Now, when I do an `Enum.GetNames()` on this type I get a string array with 9 elements as expected, but the order is All, Trace, ... , Off, General, which is not what I was expecting. Here's the MSDN documentation for `Enum.GetNames()`: "Remarks: The elements of the return value array are sorted by the values of the enumerated constants." What's going on here? I can change my program to take this "functionality" into account, but I'd kind of like to know why .NET is doing what it's doing.