CA1069: Enums should not have duplicate values
Property | Value |
---|---|
Rule ID | CA1069 |
Title | Enums should not have duplicate values |
Category | Design |
Fix is breaking or non-breaking | Breaking |
Enabled by default in .NET 9 | As suggestion |
Cause
An enumeration has multiple members which are explicitly assigned the same constant value.
Rule description
Every enum member should either have a unique constant value or be explicitly assigned with a prior member in the enum to indicate explicit intent of sharing value. For example:
enum E
{
Field1 = 1,
AnotherNameForField1 = Field1, // This is fine
Field2 = 2,
Field3 = 2, // CA1069: This is not fine. Either assign a different constant value or 'Field2' to indicate explicit intent of sharing value.
}
This rule helps in catching functional bugs introduced from the following scenarios:
- Accidental typing mistakes, where the user accidentally typed the same constant value for multiple members.
- Copy paste mistakes, where the user copied an existing member definition, then renamed the member but forgot to change the value.
- Merge resolution from multiple branches, where a new member was added with a different name but the same value in different branches.
How to fix violations
To fix a violation, either assign a new unique constant value or assign with a prior member in the enum to indicate explicit intent of sharing the same value. For example, the following code snippet shows a violation of the rule and couple of ways to fix the violation:
enum E
{
Field1 = 1,
AnotherNameForField1 = Field1, // This is fine
Field2 = 2,
Field3 = 2, // CA1069: This is not fine. Either assign a different constant value or 'Field2' to indicate explicit intent of sharing value.
}
enum E
{
Field1 = 1,
AnotherNameForField1 = Field1, // This is fine
Field2 = 2,
Field3 = 3, // This is now fine
}
enum E
{
Field1 = 1,
AnotherNameForField1 = Field1, // This is fine
Field2 = 2,
Field3 = Field2, // This is also fine
}
When to suppress warnings
Do not suppress violations of this rule.