String representation of an Enum

Question

I have the following enumeration:

public enum AuthenticationMethod
{
    FORMS = 1,
    WINDOWSAUTHENTICATION = 2,
    SINGLESIGNON = 3
}

T

Answer 1

My variant

public struct Colors
{
    private String current;

    private static string red = "#ff0000";
    private static string green = "#00ff00";
    private static string blue = "#0000ff";

    private static IList possibleColors; 

    public static Colors Red { get { return (Colors) red; } }
    public static Colors Green { get { return (Colors) green; } }
    public static Colors Blue { get { return (Colors) blue; } }

    static Colors()
    {
        possibleColors = new List() {red, green, blue};
    }

    public static explicit operator String(Colors value)
    {
        return value.current;
    }

    public static explicit operator Colors(String value)
    {
        if (!possibleColors.Contains(value))
        {
            throw new InvalidCastException();
        }

        Colors color = new Colors();
        color.current = value;
        return color;
    }

    public static bool operator ==(Colors left, Colors right)
    {
        return left.current == right.current;
    }

    public static bool operator !=(Colors left, Colors right)
    {
        return left.current != right.current;
    }

    public bool Equals(Colors other)
    {
        return Equals(other.current, current);
    }

    public override bool Equals(object obj)
    {
        if (ReferenceEquals(null, obj)) return false;
        if (obj.GetType() != typeof(Colors)) return false;
        return Equals((Colors)obj);
    }

    public override int GetHashCode()
    {
        return (current != null ? current.GetHashCode() : 0);
    }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return current;
    }
}

Code looks a bit ugly, but usages of this struct are pretty presentative.

Colors color1 = Colors.Red;
Console.WriteLine(color1); // #ff0000

Colors color2 = (Colors) "#00ff00";
Console.WriteLine(color2); // #00ff00

// Colors color3 = "#0000ff"; // Compilation error
// String color4 = Colors.Red; // Compilation error

Colors color5 = (Colors)"#ff0000";
Console.WriteLine(color1 == color5); // True

Colors color6 = (Colors)"#00ff00";
Console.WriteLine(color1 == color6); // False

Also, I think, if a lot of such enums required, code generation (e.g. T4) might be used.