How do I cast a generic enum to int?

Question

I have a small method that looks like this:

public void SetOptions<T>() where T : Enum
{
    int i = 0;
    foreach (T obj in Enum.GetValues(typeof(T)))
    {
        if (i == 0)
            DefaultOption = new ListItem(obj.Description(), obj.ToString());
        i++;
        DropDownList.Items.Add(new ListItem(obj.Description(), obj.ToString()));
    }
}

Basically, I populate a dropdown list from an enum. Description() is actually an extension method for enums, so T is definitely an enum.

However, I want to cast obj just as you would any enum to its index like this (int)obj, but I get an error saying I can't convert T to int. Is there a way to do this?

Answer 1

try this,

public void SetOptions<T>()
{
    Type genericType = typeof(T);
    if (genericType.IsEnum)
    {
        foreach (T obj in Enum.GetValues(genericType))
        {
            Enum test = Enum.Parse(typeof(T), obj.ToString()) as Enum;
            int x = Convert.ToInt32(test); // x is the integer value of enum
                        ..........
                        ..........
        }
    }
}