How should I convert a string to an enum in C#?

Question

What's the best way to convert a string to an enumeration value in C#?

I have an HTML select tag containing the values of an enumeration. When the page is posted, I want to pick up the value (which will be in the form of a string) and convert it to the enumeration value.

In an ideal world, I could do something like this:

StatusEnum MyStatus = StatusEnum.Parse("Active");

but that isn't a valid code.

Answer 1

Parses string to TEnum without try/catch and without TryParse() method from .NET 4.5

/// <summary>
/// Parses string to TEnum without try/catch and .NET 4.5 TryParse()
/// </summary>
public static bool TryParseToEnum<TEnum>(string probablyEnumAsString_, out TEnum enumValue_) where TEnum : struct
{
    enumValue_ = (TEnum)Enum.GetValues(typeof(TEnum)).GetValue(0);
    if(!Enum.IsDefined(typeof(TEnum), probablyEnumAsString_))
        return false;

    enumValue_ = (TEnum) Enum.Parse(typeof(TEnum), probablyEnumAsString_);
    return true;
}

Answer 2

We couldn't assume perfectly valid input, and went with this variation of @Keith's answer:

public static TEnum ParseEnum<TEnum>(string value) where TEnum : struct
{
    TEnum tmp; 
    if (!Enum.TryParse<TEnum>(value, true, out tmp))
    {
        tmp = new TEnum();
    }
    return tmp;
}

Answer 3

Note that the performance of Enum.Parse() is awful, because it is implemented via reflection. (The same is true of Enum.ToString, which goes the other way.)

If you need to convert strings to Enums in performance-sensitive code, your best bet is to create a Dictionary<String,YourEnum> at startup and use that to do your conversions.

Answer 4

For performance this might help:

    private static Dictionary<Type, Dictionary<string, object>> dicEnum = new Dictionary<Type, Dictionary<string, object>>();
    public static T ToEnum<T>(this string value, T defaultValue)
    {
        var t = typeof(T);
        Dictionary<string, object> dic;
        if (!dicEnum.ContainsKey(t))
        {
            dic = new Dictionary<string, object>();
            dicEnum.Add(t, dic);
            foreach (var en in Enum.GetValues(t))
                dic.Add(en.ToString(), en);
        }
        else
            dic = dicEnum[t];
        if (!dic.ContainsKey(value))
            return defaultValue;
        else
            return (T)dic[value];
    }

Answer 5

Try this sample:

 public static T GetEnum<T>(string model)
    {
        var newModel = GetStringForEnum(model);

        if (!Enum.IsDefined(typeof(T), newModel))
        {
            return (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), "None", true);
        }

        return (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), newModel.Result, true);
    }

    private static Task<string> GetStringForEnum(string model)
    {
        return Task.Run(() =>
        {
            Regex rgx = new Regex("[^a-zA-Z0-9 -]");
            var nonAlphanumericData = rgx.Matches(model);
            if (nonAlphanumericData.Count < 1)
            {
                return model;
            }
            foreach (var item in nonAlphanumericData)
            {
                model = model.Replace((string)item, "");
            }
            return model;
        });
    }

In this sample you can send every string, and set your Enum. If your Enum had data that you wanted, return that as your Enum type.

Answer 6

You're looking for Enum.Parse.

SomeEnum enum = (SomeEnum)Enum.Parse(typeof(SomeEnum), "EnumValue");