Enum values

Learn to access enum members.

Accessing enum values

You access all constants of a defined enum with .values. It is a list of constants in their writing order. Color.values gives you [Color.red, Color.green, Color.blue]. You can loop over it, take the first or the last element.

Each constant has an .index property giving its position in the definition; the first constant is 0. .name returns the constant's name as a string. Color.green.name gives "green". These properties are useful for listing enums, building menus and logging.

The index property

The position of a constant in the definition is given by .index. The first constant is 0, the next ones increase by one. Color.red.index gives 0, Color.blue.index gives 2. Handy to show which row a constant is on in a menu.

.name returns the constant's name as a string; Color.green.name gives "green". They can be used together: a log line can carry both the index and the name. Comparing with .name strings is riskier than using Color.green directly; a typo is caught at compile time with the constant.

Exercise Your turn: list constants

Define an enum Day with constants monday, tuesday, wednesday. In main loop over Day.values with a for and print each .name.

Show example solution

enum Day { monday, tuesday, wednesday }

void main() {
  for (final d in Day.values) {
    print(d.name);
  }
}

Test yourself

The .values property

final list = Color.____;

Show answer

final list = Color.values;

Match enum properties

.values

list of all constants
.index

position number
.name

constant name as string
Color.green

a single constant
What does Color.values return?
```
final all = Color.values;
```
- a single Color
- a number
- a string
- a list of Color (List<Color>)
Show answer

a list of Color (List<Color>) — .values is the list of all constants.

Next lesson: Enhanced enums

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