Using foreach with IEnumerator<T> / IAsyncEnumerator<T> in C# 9

The foreach statement allows to iterate on a collection. The foreach statement isn’t limited to collection or types that implement IEnumerable<T>. As explained in a previous post, you can use it with an instance of any type that has the public parameterless GetEnumerator method whose return a type having the public Current property and the public parameterless MoveNext method whose return type is Boolean.

In C## 9, the GetEnumerator method can be provided using an extension method! For instance the IEnumerator<T> is not compatible with the foreach statement as it doesn’t have a method named GetEnumerator. You can create an extension method named GetEnumerator which make it possible 😃

Before using this feature, you need to update the language version to 9.0 or preview:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net5.0</TargetFramework>
    <LangVersion>9.0</LangVersion>
  </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

Then, you can create the extension method and use it:

static class Extensions
{
    public static IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator<T>(this IEnumerator<T> enumerator) => enumerator;
}

class Program
{
    void Main()
    {
        IEnumerator<int> enumerator = Enumerable.Range(0, 10).GetEnumerator();

        // Does not compile in C## 8
        // Possible with C## 9 and the extension method
        foreach (var item in enumerator)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(item);
        }
    }
}

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Using foreach with IEnumerator<T> / IAsyncEnumerator<T> in C# 9