.net Custom Configuration How to case insensitive parse an enum ConfigurationProperty

Question

One of the ConfigurationProperty I have in my ConfigurationSection is an ENUM. When .net parses this enum string value from the config file, an exception will be thrown if the c

Answer 1

Try using this:

Enum.Parse(enum_type, string_value, true);

Last param set to true tells to ignore string casing when parsing.

Answer 2

MyEnum.TryParse() has an IgnoreCase parameter, set it true.

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

UPDATE: Defining the configuration section like this should work

public class CustomConfigurationSection : ConfigurationSection
    {
      [ConfigurationProperty("myEnumProperty", DefaultValue = MyEnum.Item1, IsRequired = true)]
      public MyEnum SomeProperty
      {
        get
        {
          MyEnum tmp;
          return Enum.TryParse((string)this["myEnumProperty"],true,out tmp)?tmp:MyEnum.Item1;
        }
        set
        { this["myEnumProperty"] = value; }
      }
    }

Answer 3

You can use ConfigurationConverterBase to make a custom configuration converter, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.configuration.configurationconverterbase.aspx

this will do the job:

 public class CaseInsensitiveEnumConfigConverter<T> : ConfigurationConverterBase
    {
        public override object ConvertFrom(
        ITypeDescriptorContext ctx, CultureInfo ci, object data)
        {
            return Enum.Parse(typeof(T), (string)data, true);
        }
    }

and then on your property:

[ConfigurationProperty("unit", DefaultValue = MeasurementUnits.Pixel)]
[TypeConverter(typeof(CaseInsensitiveEnumConfigConverter<MeasurementUnits>))]
public MeasurementUnits Unit { get { return (MeasurementUnits)this["unit"]; } }

public enum MeasurementUnits
{
        Pixel,
        Inches,
        Points,
        MM,
}