Enum.HasFlag

In not-so-new news, I just found out about .NET 4’s Enum.HasFlag method. This nice little method makes life with flags a little bit cleaner since you can use it instead of performing a bitwise AND and compare.

[Flags]
enum Options
{
	None = 0,
	A = 1,
	B = 2,
	C = 4
}

void Main()
{
	var options = Options.A | Options.C;
	
	// old (bitwise AND and compare)
	Console.WriteLine("A:{0}", (options & Options.A) == Options.A);
	Console.WriteLine("B:{0}", (options & Options.B) == Options.B);
	Console.WriteLine("C:{0}", (options & Options.C) == Options.C);
	
	// new (HasFlag method)
	Console.WriteLine("A:{0}", options.HasFlag(Options.A));
	Console.WriteLine("B:{0}", options.HasFlag(Options.B));
	Console.WriteLine("C:{0}", options.HasFlag(Options.C));
}

/* Output:
A:True
B:False
C:True
A:True
B:False
C:True
 */

Author: Adam Prescott

I'm enthusiastic and passionate about creating intuitive, great-looking software. I strive to find the simplest solutions to complex problems, and I embrace agile principles and test-driven development. View all posts by Adam Prescott