Search for a string in Enum and return the Enum

Question

I have an enumeration:

public enum MyColours
{
    Red,
    Green,
    Blue,
    Yellow,
    Fuchsia,
    Aqua,
    Orange
}

and I have a s

Answer 1

All you need is Enum.Parse.

Answer 2

One thing that might be useful to you (besides the already valid/good answers provided so far) is the StringEnum idea provided here

With this you can define your enumerations as classes (the examples are in vb.net):

< StringEnumRegisteredOnly(), DebuggerStepThrough(), ImmutableObject(True)> Public NotInheritable Class eAuthenticationMethod Inherits StringEnumBase(Of eAuthenticationMethod)

Private Sub New(ByVal StrValue As String)
  MyBase.New(StrValue)   
End Sub

< Description("Use User Password Authentication")> Public Shared ReadOnly UsernamePassword As New eAuthenticationMethod("UP")   

< Description("Use Windows Authentication")> Public Shared ReadOnly WindowsAuthentication As New eAuthenticationMethod("W")   

End Class

And now you could use the this class as you would use an enum: eAuthenticationMethod.WindowsAuthentication and this would be essentially like assigning the 'W' the logical value of WindowsAuthentication (inside the enum) and if you were to view this value from a properties window (or something else that uses the System.ComponentModel.Description property) you would get "Use Windows Authentication".

I've been using this for a long time now and it makes the code more clear in intent.

Answer 3

(MyColours)Enum.Parse(typeof(MyColours), "red", true); // MyColours.Red
(int)((MyColours)Enum.Parse(typeof(MyColours), "red", true)); // 0

Answer 4

You might also want to check out some of the suggestions in this blog post: My new little friend, Enum<T>

The post describes a way to create a very simple generic helper class which enables you to avoid the ugly casting syntax inherent with Enum.Parse - instead you end up writing something like this in your code:

MyColours colour = Enum<MyColours>.Parse(stringValue); 

Or check out some of the comments in the same post which talk about using an extension method to achieve similar.

Answer 5

var color =  Enum.Parse<Colors>("Green");

Answer 6

You can cast the int to an enum

(MyColour)2

There is also the option of Enum.Parse

(MyColour)Enum.Parse(typeof(MyColour), "Red")