How do do this ( a constant value is expected )

Question

 

I had some constants that worked well in this switch statement. But a better design would be to use them as enum types, as follows, however now the switch cant compile.

 

public const string HWPARAMETER = "HWNOPARAMS";  //  I want to consolidate these in the enum

 

public enum ioTypes { MANUAL,VIRTUALCH,HWPARAMETER,HWNOPARAMS,TMSTIME}

 

private void MeasurementAgent(string IOtype)

{

switch (IOtype)

{

case ioTypes.HWNOPARAMS.ToString():    // wont compile

localResults = TMSHardwareSensorRead(mStruct);

break;

}

switch (IOtype)          

{

case HWNOPARAMS:      // does compile

localResults = TMSHardwareSensorRead(mStruct);

break;

}

 

}

Answer 1

Hello,

 

Syntax for switch case is as below

 

Code Snippet

switch ( expression )
      case constant-expression : statement
   [default  : statement]

 

 

In a case statement you can only give a constant-expression, and it can be of either int or string type.

 

May be you can think of modifying your code to

 

Code Snippet

private void MeasurementAgent(ioTypes IOtype)

{

switch (IOtype)

{

case ioTypes.HWNOPARAMS:  

localResults = TMSHardwareSensorRead(mStruct);

break;

}

}

 

 

Cheers

Answer 2

One issue is that the underlying type of the enum is an int, getting the "name" associated with it is different.

The second issue is switch will not accept anything that can be variable. The reason for this is that switch is not a search case by case statement, switch performs some hashing to provide quicker reference to the possible cases. In general if there is a method call (ToString()) then it isn't (guarenteed to be) a constant evaluation.

One way to deal with what your optimization is would be to parse the string to the enum then switch on the enum value.

private void MeasurementAgent(string IOtype)

{

ioTypes t = (ioTypes)Enum.Parse( typeof(ioTypes), IOtype );

switch (t)

{

case ioTypes.HWNOPARAMS:    // wont compile

localResults = TMSHardwareSensorRead(mStruct);

break;

}

}

Answer 3

I reckon it's what you are passing as a parameter. Should be something like this i think:

 

private void MeasurementAgent(ioTypes IOtype)

{

switch (IOtype)

{

case ioTypes.HWNOPARAMS:

localResults = TMSHardwareSensorRead(mStruct);

break;

}

}

 

reason why it wasn't compiling was because you were comparing a string to a ioTypes.

 

If you could give us the compile error exactly, i think that'd help out a bit more.

 

Answer 4

I agree with this approach.  Need to parse the string to enum ioTypes.

Answer 5

How about if the string is a number like 1 2 3 or has spaces in it. I have a problem My string evaluates to be

1 - critical

2 - High

3 - Low