Use .NET Enumerations in MATLAB

R2026b

In MATLAB®, an enumeration is a class that defines a fixed set of named values. Similarly, a .NET enumeration provides a fixed set of members, underlying values, and methods. You can work with .NET enumerations in much the same way as MATLAB enumerations. Some operations, such as creating arrays of enumeration values, require using methods of the .NET System.Enum class.

View and Create .NET Enumeration Members

An enumeration member is an instance of an enumeration class. You can assign .NET enumeration members to MATLAB variables and create MATLAB arrays of members. To display the member names of a .NET enumeration, use the MATLAB enumeration function.

For example, display the members of the .NET enumeration System.DayOfWeek.

enumeration("System.DayOfWeek")

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

This syntax creates a System.DayOfWeek object with the default enumeration value.

enumObj = System.DayOfWeek
enumObj =
Sunday

Create a System.DayOfWeek object with the value Thursday.

day = System.DayOfWeek.Thursday

day = 
Thursday

Create Arrays of .NET Enumeration Members

To create MATLAB arrays from a .NET enumeration, use the static System.Enum methods GetNames and GetValues. These methods require the enumeration type, which you can obtain using the GetType method.

For example, create a string array of all the days of the week.

allDays = string(System.Enum.GetNames(enumObj.GetType))

allDays = 

  1×7 string array

    "Sunday"    "Monday"    "Tuesday"    "Wednesday"    "Thursday"    "Friday"    "Saturday"

To create an array of System.DayOfWeek enumeration members, use System.Enum.GetValues. 

allValues = System.Enum.GetValues(enumObj.GetType)
allValues = 

  DayOfWeek[] with properties:

            Length: 7
        LongLength: 7
              Rank: 1
          SyncRoot: [1×1 System.DayOfWeek[]]
        IsReadOnly: 0
       IsFixedSize: 1
    IsSynchronized: 0

Work with .NET Enumerations in MATLAB

To work with .NET enumeration members in MATLAB, you can use the methods of the .NET enumeration or other .NET methods. You can also use built-in MATLAB functions and operators, including relational operators, conversion functions, and bitwise functions.

.NET Methods

To view the available methods and supported MATLAB operations for a .NET enumeration class, use the methods function.

methods("System.DayOfWeek")
Methods for class System.DayOfWeek:

CompareTo          GetTypeCode        double             intersect          keyMatch           setxor             strncmpi           
DayOfWeek          HasFlag            eq                 isequal            le                 strcmp             union              
Equals             ToString           ge                 isequaln           lt                 strcmpi            
GetHashCode        cellstr            gt                 ismember           ne                 string             
GetType            char               int32              keyHash            setdiff            strncmp            

Static methods:

Format             GetNames           GetValues          Parse              ToObject           
GetName            GetUnderlyingType  IsDefined          ReferenceEquals

You can call a method of a .NET enumeration class by using dot notation with a .NET member object. For example, check if two System.DayOfWeek enumeration members are equal.

day.Equals(enumObj)
ans = 
   logical
      0

You can also pass a .NET enumeration object to a .NET method from a different class. For example, pass a System.DayOfWeek value to the GetAbbreviatedDayName method of the System.Globalization.DateTimeFormatInfo class.

dtformat = System.Globalization.DateTimeFormatInfo;
dtformat.GetAbbreviatedDayName(day)
ans = 

    Thu

Relational Operators with Enumerations

You can use MATLAB relational operators with .NET enumeration members. These relational operators are helpful if you want to use .NET enumeration members in control flow statements, such as if and switch.

For example, use an if statement to display a message depending on the day of the week. 

if gt(day,System.DayOfWeek.Thursday)
    disp("Have a good weekend!")
else
    disp("Have a good week!")
end

Enumeration Conversion Functions

You can use MATLAB conversion functions (including string, double, and other numeric functions) on .NET enumeration members.

For example, convert an enumeration member to a string so that you can include it in message text.

gameDay = System.DayOfWeek.Thursday;
"Next game is " + string(gameDay)

ans = 

    "Next game is Thursday"

If you convert an enumeration member using a numeric conversion function, you can access its underlying value.

underlyingVal = double(gameDay)
ans = 
    4

Bitwise Functions

Some .NET enumerations define bit flags using the System.Flags attribute. Bitwise operations allow you to combine or test multiple flag values. MATLAB provides these functions for bitwise operations: bitand, bitnot, bitor, and bitxor (available only for enumerations with the System.Flags attribute)

To use bitwise enumeration functions, the .NET enumeration must:

  • Include the Flags attribute.

  • Define values that are powers of 2.

For more information, see Use Bit Flags with .NET Enumerations.

Underlying Enumeration Values

MATLAB supports .NET enumerations of any numeric underlying type. Use the static System.Enum.GetUnderlyingType method to identify the numeric type.

For example, find the underlying type of System.DayOfWeek. The underlying type is System.Int32.

thisDay = System.DateTime.Today;
dow = thisDay.DayOfWeek;
System.Enum.GetUnderlyingType(dow.GetType).FullName
ans = 

System.Int32

You can use the underlying numeric value for calculations. For example, compute the first day of the current week. The conversion function double returns the underlying value of dow as part of the calculation.

startDateOfWeek = AddDays(thisDay,-double(dow));
ToShortDateString(startDateOfWeek)

ans = 

2/8/2026

See Also

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