Could GetMember() ever return an empty array for an enum?

Question

Take a look at this enum extension method for getting the Description attribute:

public static string GetDescription(this Enum enumValue)
{
    var memberInfo = enumValue.GetType().GetMember(enumValue.ToString());

    if (memberInfo.Length < 1)
        return null;

    var attributes = memberInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);

    return attributes.Length > 0 ? ((DescriptionAttribute)attributes[0]).Description : enumValue.ToString();
}

And an example enum with Description attributes:

public enum Colors
{
    [Description("Navy Blue")]
    Blue,
    [Description("Lime Green")]
    Green
}

And finally the usage of the extension method:

var blue = Colors.Blue;
Console.WriteLine(blue.GetDescription());
// Console output: Navy Blue

My question is, when it comes to enums, is the if (memberInfo.Length < 1) check necessary? Would the returned array from GetMember() ever be empty for an enum? I know you can declare an empty enum like this:

public enum Colors
{
}

But I don't know if you can even create a variable of type Colors then...

var green = Colors. // What goes here?

I would like to remove the if (memberInfo.Length < 1) check, but I don't want to do it if it will cause problems later (I can't think of a reason I'd ever need an empty enum, but other developers will probably use the GetDescription() extension method).

Answer 1

You can create a variable of type Colors even if no value is defined:

public enum Colors { }

var color2 = (Colors)100; // with casting
Colors color2 = default; // default value '0'