C# Change int value of item in enum

Question

I have this enum

 enum Items { pen = 5, watch = 4, rubber = 1, ruler = 8};

and I want to change the value of watch (now is 4) to 6. So something like this:

Items.watch = 6;

but this doesn't work. Any ideas?

Answer 1

The value of an enum is fixed at compile time. According to Microsoft's C# documentation :

The enum keyword is used to declare an enumeration, a distinct type that consists of a set of named constants called the enumerator list.

Note the term "constants". If you want to change the integer value of an enum entry, you must recompile the code.

Answer 2

There is no way to change numeric values of enum constants, because they are, well, constant.

You can associate a separate value with an enum by setting up a dictionary, but that would not change the values of the enum constants themselves:

private static IDictionary<Items,int> AssociatedValue = new Dictionary<Items,int> {
    {Items.pen, 5}, {Items.watch, 4}, {Items.rubber, 1}, {Items.ruler, 8}
};

Now you can set

AssociatedValue[Items.watch] = 6

but you would have to use AssociatedValue[enumVal] in place of (int)enumVal when you need the integer value.