How to TryParse for Enum value?

Question

I want to write a function which can validate a given value (passed as a string) against possible values of an enum. In the case of a match, it should return the enum instance; otherwise, it should return a default value.

The function may not internally use try/catch, which excludes using Enum.Parse, which throws an exception when given an invalid argument.

I'd like to use something along the lines of a TryParse function to implement this:

public static TEnum ToEnum<TEnum>(this string strEnumValue, TEnum defaultValue)
{
   object enumValue;
   if (!TryParse (typeof (TEnum), strEnumValue, out enumValue))
   {
       return defaultValue;
   }
   return (TEnum) enumValue;
}

Answer 1

I have an optimised implementation you could use in UnconstrainedMelody. Effectively it's just caching the list of names, but it's doing so in a nice, strongly typed, generically constrained way :)

Answer 2

As others already said, if you don't use Try&Catch, you need to use IsDefined or GetNames... Here are some samples...they basically are all the same, the first one handling nullable enums. I prefer the 2nd one as it's an extension on strings, not enums...but you can mix them as you want!

• www.objectreference.net/post/Enum-TryParse-Extension-Method.aspx
• flatlinerdoa.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!17124D03A9A052B0!605.entry
• mironabramson.com/blog/post/2008/03/Another-version-for-the-missing-method-EnumTryParse.aspx
• lazyloading.blogspot.com/2008/04/enumtryparse-with-net-35-extension.html