Work with Members of a .NET Enumeration

To display the member names of an enumeration, use the MATLAB^® enumeration function. For example, to list the member names of the System.DayOfWeek enumeration, type:

enumeration('System.DayOfWeek')

Enumeration members for class 'System.DayOfWeek':
    Sunday
    Monday
    Tuesday
    Wednesday
    Thursday
    Friday
    Saturday

You cannot use the enumeration command to return arrays of .NET enumeration objects. You can read the names and values of the enumeration into arrays, using the System.Enum methods GetNames, GetValues, and GetType.

For example, to create arrays allNames and allValues for the System.DayOfWeek enumeration, type:

myDay = System.DayOfWeek;
allNames = System.Enum.GetNames(myDay.GetType);
allValues = System.Enum.GetValues(myDay.GetType);

The class of the names array is System.String, while the class of the values array is the enumeration type System.DayOfWeek.

whos all*

  Name       Size  Bytes  Class

  allNames   1x1   112    System.String[]
  allValues  1x1   112    System.DayOfWeek[]

Although the types are different, the information MATLAB displays is the same. For example, type:

allNames(1)

ans = 
Sunday

Type:

allValues(1)

ans = 
Sunday