Creating a enum with a number at the beginning

Question

I have the following:

public enum Size
{
    XXS,
    XS,
    S,
    M,
    L,
    XL,
    1XL, 
    2XL, 
    3XL, 
    4XL, 
    5XL, 
    6XL
}

The enum is for a DB and I need it to go into the DB in this format (nvarchar), I have not created this DB table.

Error 30 Type or namespace definition, or end-of-file expected

I know it is because there is a number at the beginning, is there anyway round this, other than doing a switch statement or something?

UPDATE:

This is for a Google Feed, they require the values to be provided as below, this is not our naming convention

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 09 '16 at 08:15

3

C# identifier names cannot begin with numerics. How about rendering the numbers as words? XL, TwoXL, ThreeXL, FourXL and so on?

answered Aug 09 '16 at 08:15

Matt

1,648
12
22

1

Also, your naming convention in this enum is inconsistent. Why is it XXS but 2XL? – Matt Aug 09 '16 at 08:21
This is for a Google Feed, this is not our naming convention – Clare Barrington Aug 09 '16 at 08:23
I would need to do some sort of conversion to get the value Google requires – Clare Barrington Aug 09 '16 at 08:24

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 09 '16 at 08:17

You cannot define an identifier name starts with a digit, first character must be a letter or an underscore.Here You are trying to overwrite the basic rule for defining an identifier. Let me remind you the rules once again:

An identifier is a sequence of letters,digits and underscore.
The first character Must be either a letter or an underscore
Keywords cannot be used as an identifiers, since it is reserved by the language compiler.

The Possible declarations for you:

Start with an underscore

public enum Size
{
    _XXS,           
    _1XL,
}

Use words instead for digits

public enum Size
{
    _XXS,           
    oneXL,
}

I would still require to do a removal of the _ before inserting into the DB — Clare Barrington, Aug 09 '16 at 08:25

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:44

0

Have a look here, maybe you can work around this issue with DataAnnotations. See this solution: How to get the Display Name Attribute of an Enum member via MVC razor code?

edited May 23 '17 at 11:44

Community

1
1

answered Aug 09 '16 at 08:17

Thomas Voß

1,145
8
20

I think I need to use the 'Description'? – Clare Barrington Aug 09 '16 at 08:26
You need this for each enum value you declare. `[Display(Name = "3XL")]` for for example ThreeXL. In the linked question you can see how to read it out. – Thomas Voß Aug 09 '16 at 10:40

Creating a enum with a number at the beginning

3 Answers3