An enum is a constant that contains words to represent numbers basically. For example, your program might refer to days of the week with numbers 1 to 7, but to make your code more readable you can create an enum to show that 1 is equal to "Sunday". Here is an example:
Before:
private void DoWork(int today)
{
if (today == 1 today == 2)
TakeABreak();
else
GetToWork();
}
After:
public enum Day
{
Sunday = 1,
Monday = 2,
Tuesday = 3,
Wednesday = 4,
Thursday = 5,
Friday = 6,
Saturday = 7
}
private void DoWork(Day today)
{
if (today == Day.Sunday today == Day.Saturday)
TakeABreak();
else
GetToWork();
}
But say you have an outside program that refers to days of week by actual names and not numbers, you can still use your enum:
private void DoWork(string today)
{
if (today == Day.Sunday.ToString()
today == Day.Saturday.ToString())
TakeABreak();
else
GetToWork();
}
More Info:
MSDN: Enum Class