Parse string to enum type

Question

I have an enum type like this as an example:

public Enum MyEnum {
    enum1, enum2, enum3 };

I\'ll read a string from config file. What I n

Answer 1

I have just combined the syntax from here, with the exception handling from here, to create this:

public static class Enum<T>
{
    public static T Parse(string value)
    {
        //Null check
        if(value == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("value");
        //Empty string check
        value = value.Trim();
        if(value.Length == 0) throw new ArgumentException("Must specify valid information for parsing in the string", "value");
        //Not enum check
        Type t = typeof(T);
        if(!t.IsEnum) throw new ArgumentException("Type provided must be an Enum", "TEnum");

        return (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), value);
    }
}

You could twiddle it a bit to return null instead of throwing exceptions.

Answer 2

This is an old question, but now .NET 4.5 has Enum.TryParse().

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd991317.aspx