Enum.GetUnderlyingType(Type) Method

Definition

Returns the underlying type of the specified enumeration.

public static Type GetUnderlyingType (Type enumType);
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComVisible(true)]
public static Type GetUnderlyingType (Type enumType);

Parameters

enumType
Type

The enumeration whose underlying type will be retrieved.

Returns

The underlying type of enumType.

Attributes

Exceptions

enumType is null.

enumType is not an Enum.

Examples

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

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

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.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0

See also