Interlocked.CompareExchange with enum

Question

I'm trying to use Interlocked.CompareExchange with this enum:

public enum State {
    Idle,
    Running,
    //...
}

The following code doesn't compile, but that's what I want do do:

if (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref state, State.Running, State.Idle) != State.Idle) {
    throw new InvalidOperationException("Unable to run - not idle");
}

Sure I can use a int instead of the enum and use a property:

private int state = (int)State.Idle;
public State { get { return (State)state; } }

Then cast the enums to a int:

if (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref state, (int)State.Running, (int)State.Idle) !=  (int)State.Idle) {
    throw new InvalidOperationException("Unable to run - not idle");
}

But are there better ways to do this?

Answer 1

To make it simple, no :-)

Sadly C#/.NET consider enums as full type, partially disconnected from their base type. Every time you try to do something "fancy" on an enum you encounter some barrier.