Get enum from enum attribute

Question

I've got

public enum Als 
{
    [StringValue("Beantwoord")] Beantwoord = 0,
    [StringValue("Niet beantwoord")] NietBeantwoord = 1,
    [StringValue("Geselecteerd")] Geselecteerd = 2,
    [StringValue("Niet geselecteerd")] NietGeselecteerd = 3,
}

with

public class StringValueAttribute : Attribute
{
    private string _value;

    public StringValueAttribute(string value)
    {
        _value = value;
    }

    public string Value
    {
        get { return _value; }
    }
}

And I would like to put the value from the item I selected of a combobox into a int:

int i = (int)(Als)Enum.Parse(typeof(Als), (string)cboAls.SelectedValue); //<- WRONG

Is this possible, and if so, how? (the StringValue matches the value selected from the combobox).

Answer 1

To parse a string value based on attribute values applied to enum members I'd recommend you use my Enums.NET open source library.

For a custom attribute like the StringValueAttribute you would do this.

Register and store a custom EnumFormat for StringValueAttribute.Value.

Format = Enums.RegisterCustomEnumFormat(m => m.Attributes.Get<StringValueAttribute>()?.Value);

Then use the custom EnumFormat.

Als result = Enums.Parse<Als>("Niet beantwoord", Format); // result == Als.NietBeantwoord

If you were instead using a built-in attribute such as the DescriptionAttribute you could just do this.

Als result = Enums.Parse<Als>("Niet beantwoord", EnumFormat.Description);

In case you're interested, this is how you'd get the string value associated with an enum value.

string value = Als.NietBeantwoord.AsString(Format); // value == "Niet beantwoord"

Answer 2

I'm using the DescriptionAttribute from Microsoft and the following extension method:

public static string GetDescription(this Enum value)
{
    if (value == null)
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("value");
    }

    string description = value.ToString();
    FieldInfo fieldInfo = value.GetType().GetField(description);
    DescriptionAttribute[] attributes =
       (DescriptionAttribute[])
     fieldInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);

    if (attributes != null && attributes.Length > 0)
    {
        description = attributes[0].Description;
    }
    return description;
}

Answer 3

Not sure if I am missing something here, can you not do this,

Als temp = (Als)combo1.SelectedItem;
int t = (int)temp;

Answer 4

Coming here from duplicate links of this highly upvoted question and answer, here is a method that works with C# 7.3's new Enum type constraint. Note that you also need to specify that it is also a struct so that you can make it the nullable TEnum? or else you will get an error.

public static TEnum? GetEnumFromDescription<TEnum>(string description)
    where TEnum : struct, Enum 
{
    var comparison = StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase;
    foreach (var field in typeof(TEnum).GetFields())
    {
        var attribute = Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(field, typeof(DescriptionAttribute)) as DescriptionAttribute;
        if (attribute != null)
        {
            if (string.Compare(attribute.Description, description, comparison) == 0)
                return (TEnum)field.GetValue(null);
        }
        if (string.Compare(field.Name, description, comparison) == 0)
            return (TEnum)field.GetValue(null);
    }
    return null;
}

Answer 5

Here are a couple extension methods that I use for this exact purpose, I've rewritten these to use your StringValueAttribute, but like Oliver I use the DescriptionAttribute in my code.

    public static T FromEnumStringValue<T>(this string description) where T : struct {
        Debug.Assert(typeof(T).IsEnum);

        return (T)typeof(T)
            .GetFields()
            .First(f => f.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(StringValueAttribute), false)
                         .Cast<StringValueAttribute>()
                         .Any(a => a.Value.Equals(description, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
            )
            .GetValue(null);
    }

This can be made slightly more simple in .NET 4.5:

    public static T FromEnumStringValue<T>(this string description) where T : struct {
        Debug.Assert(typeof(T).IsEnum);

        return (T)typeof(T)
            .GetFields()
            .First(f => f.GetCustomAttributes<StringValueAttribute>()
                         .Any(a => a.Value.Equals(description, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
            )
            .GetValue(null);
    }

And to call it, just do the following:

Als result = ComboBox.SelectedValue.FromEnumStringValue<Als>();

Conversely, here's a function to get the string from an enum value:

    public static string StringValue(this Enum enumItem) {
        return enumItem
            .GetType()
            .GetField(enumItem.ToString())
            .GetCustomAttributes<StringValueAttribute>()
            .Select(a => a.Value)
            .FirstOrDefault() ?? enumItem.ToString();
    }

And to call it:

string description = Als.NietBeantwoord.StringValue()

Answer 6

Here's a helper method that should point you in the right direction.

protected Als GetEnumByStringValueAttribute(string value)
{
    Type enumType = typeof(Als);
    foreach (Enum val in Enum.GetValues(enumType))
    {
        FieldInfo fi = enumType.GetField(val.ToString());
        StringValueAttribute[] attributes = (StringValueAttribute[])fi.GetCustomAttributes(
            typeof(StringValueAttribute), false);
        StringValueAttribute attr = attributes[0];
        if (attr.Value == value)
        {
            return (Als)val;
        }
    }
    throw new ArgumentException("The value '" + value + "' is not supported.");
}

And to call it, just do the following:

Als result = this.GetEnumByStringValueAttribute<Als>(ComboBox.SelectedValue);

This probably isn't the best solution though as it's tied to Als and you'll probably want to make this code re-usable. What you'll probably want to strip out the code from my solution to return you the attribute value and then just use Enum.Parse as you are doing in your question.