How to compare Enum values in C#?

Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2019

Enum.CompareTo(Object) Method is used to compare the current instance to a specified object and returns an indication of their relative values.

Syntax:

public int CompareTo (object target);

Here, the target is an object to compare or it may be null.

Returns: This method returns a signed number which shows the relative values of the current instance and target as follows:

Less than zero: If the value of the current instance is less than the value of target.
Zero: If the value of the current instance is equal to the value of the target.
Greater than zero: If the value of the current instance is greater than the value of the target or the target is null.

Exceptions:

ArgumentException: If the target and current instance are not the same types.
InvalidOperationException: If the instance is not type SByte, Int16, Int32, Int64, Byte, UInt16, UInt32, or UInt64.
NullReferenceException: If the current instance is null.

Below programs illustrate the use of the above-discussed method:

Example 1:

// C# program to demonstrate the  
// Enum.CompareTo(Object) Method 
using System; 
  
public class GFG  
{  
      
    enum Color  
    {  
        RED, GREEN, BLUE 
    }; 
  
    // Driver method  
    public static void Main(String[] args)  
    {  
        Color c1 = Color.RED;  
        Color c2 = Color.GREEN;  
        Color c3 = Color.RED;  
        Color c4 = Color.BLUE;  
          
        Console.Write("Comparing {0} with {1} : ", c1, c2);  
          
        // CompareTo method  
        Console.WriteLine(c1.CompareTo(c2));  
          
        Console.Write("Comparing {0} with {1} : ", c1, c3);  
          
        // CompareTo method  
        Console.WriteLine(c1.CompareTo(c3));  
          
        Console.Write("Comparing {0} with {1} : ", c4, c2);  
          
        // CompareTo method  
        Console.WriteLine(c4.CompareTo(c2));  
          
    }  
}  

Output:

Comparing RED with GREEN : -1
Comparing RED with RED : 0
Comparing BLUE with GREEN : 1

Example 2:

// C# program to demonstrate the  
// Enum.CompareTo(Object) Method 
using System; 
  
public class GFG  
{  
      
    enum Color{Red, Blue}; 
      
    enum Seasons {Winter, Summer}; 
  
    // Driver method  
    public static void Main(String[] args)  
    {  
        Color c1 = Color.Red;  
        Color c2 = Color.Blue;  
          
        Seasons s1 = Seasons.Winter; 
        Seasons s2 = Seasons.Summer; 
          
        Console.Write("Comparing {0} with {1} : ", c1, c2);  
          
        // CompareTo method  
        Console.WriteLine(c1.CompareTo(c2));  
          
        Console.Write("Comparing {0} with {1} : ", c1, s1);  
          
        // using CompareTo method 
        // it will give exception 
        // as target and the current 
        // instance are not the same 
        // types 
        Console.WriteLine(c1.CompareTo(s1));  
      
          
    }  
}  

Runtime Error:

Unhandled Exception:
System.ArgumentException: Object must be the same type as the enum. The type passed in was ‘GFG+Seasons’; the enum type was ‘GFG+Color’.
at System.Enum.CompareTo (System.Object target) <0x7ff9d1544610 + 0x000da> in <0f8aeac9d63d4b8aa575761bb4e65b79>:0

Reference:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.enum.compareto?view=netframework-4.8

C# | StringComparer.Compare Method

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