Choosing the default value of an Enum type without having to change values

The default for an enum (in fact, any value type) is 0 -- even if that is not a valid value for that enum. It cannot be changed.

The default value of any enum is zero. So if you want to set one enumerator to be the default value, then set that one to zero and all other enumerators to non-zero (the first enumerator to have the value zero will be the default value for that enum if there are several enumerators with the value zero).

enum Orientation
{
    None = 0, //default value since it has the value '0'
    North = 1,
    East = 2,
    South = 3,
    West = 4
}

Orientation o; // initialized to 'None'

If your enumerators don't need explicit values, then just make sure the first enumerator is the one you want to be the default enumerator since "By default, the first enumerator has the value 0, and the value of each successive enumerator is increased by 1." (C# reference)

enum Orientation
{
    None, //default value since it is the first enumerator
    North,
    East,
    South,
    West
}

Orientation o; // initialized to 'None'

An enum's default is whatever enumeration equates to zero. I don't believe this is changeable by attribute or other means.

(MSDN says: "The default value of an enum E is the value produced by the expression (E)0.")

The default value of enum is the enummember equal to 0 or the first element(if value is not specified) ... But i have faced critical problems using enum in my projects and overcome by doing something below ... How ever my need was related to class level ...

    class CDDtype
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public DDType DDType { get; set; }

        public CDDtype()
        {
            DDType = DDType.None;
        }
    }    


    [DefaultValue(None)]
    public enum DDType
    {       
        None = -1,       
        ON = 0,       
        FC = 1,       
        NC = 2,       
        CC = 3
    }

and get expected result

    CDDtype d1= new CDDtype();
    CDDtype d2 = new CDDtype { Id = 50 };

    Console.Write(d1.DDType);//None
    Console.Write(d2.DDType);//None

Now what if value is coming from DB .... Ok in this scenario... pass value in below function and it will convertthe value to enum ...below function handled various scenario and it's generic... and believe me it is very fast ..... :)

    public static T ToEnum<T>(this object value)
    {
        //Checking value is null or DBNull
        if (!value.IsNull())
        {
            return (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), value.ToStringX());
        }

        //Returanable object
        object ValueToReturn = null;

        //First checking whether any 'DefaultValueAttribute' is present or not
        var DefaultAtt = (from a in typeof(T).CustomAttributes
                          where a.AttributeType == typeof(DefaultValueAttribute)
                          select a).FirstOrNull();

        //If DefaultAttributeValue is present
        if ((!DefaultAtt.IsNull()) && (DefaultAtt.ConstructorArguments.Count == 1))
        {
            ValueToReturn = DefaultAtt.ConstructorArguments[0].Value;
        }

        //If still no value found
        if (ValueToReturn.IsNull())
        {
            //Trying to get the very first property of that enum
            Array Values = Enum.GetValues(typeof(T));

            //getting very first member of this enum
            if (Values.Length > 0)
            {
                ValueToReturn = Values.GetValue(0);
            }
        }

        //If any result found
        if (!ValueToReturn.IsNull())
        {
            return (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), ValueToReturn.ToStringX());
        }

        return default(T);
    }

If you define the Default enum as the enum with the smallest value you can use this:

public enum MyEnum { His = -1, Hers = -2, Mine = -4, Theirs = -3 }

var firstEnum = ((MyEnum[])Enum.GetValues(typeof(MyEnum)))[0];

firstEnum == Mine.

This doesn't assume that the enum has a zero value.

enum Orientations
{
    None, North, East, South, West
}
private Orientations? _orientation { get; set; }

public Orientations? Orientation
{
    get
    {
        return _orientation ?? Orientations.None;
    }
    set
    {
        _orientation = value;
    }
}

If you set the property to null will return Orientations.None on get. The property _orientation is null by default.

Don't rely on the enum value in this case. Let None be 0 as a default.

// Remove all the values from the enum
enum Orientation
{
    None, // = 0 Putting None as the first enum value will make it the default
    North, // = 1
    East, // = 2
    South, // = 3
    West // = 4
}

Then use a method to get the Magic Number. You can introduce an Extension Method and use it like:

// Extension Methods are added by adding a using to the namespace
using ProjectName.Extensions;

Orientation.North.ToMagicNumber();

And here is the code:

namespace ProjectName.Extensions
{
    public static class OrientationExtensions 
    {
        public static int ToMagicNumber(this Orientation orientation) => oritentation switch
        {
            case None  => -1,
            case North => 0,
            case East  => 1,
            case South => 2,
            case West  => 3,
            _          => throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(orientation), $"Not expected orientation value: {orientation}")
        };
    }
}