c# string to enum mapping

Question

I have the following Enum:

public enum ItemType
{
   Foo =0,
   Bar =1
}

and then a string that is passed to a method in lowercase.

How can I compare the string to my enum and return the enum.

public ItemType Method(string value)
{
   ///compare string to enum here and return Enum
}

and the method receives the value as parameter like this (notice the lowercase)

string value = "foo";  /// or value ="bar"

ItemType type = Method(value)

score -1 · Answer 1 · answered May 14 '14 at 09:31

You are looking for Enum.TryParse method.

public ItemType Method(string value)
{
    ItemType item;
    if(Enum.TryParse(value, true, out item)) return item;

    else /* throw exception or return defaul value  */
}

The second parameter is allows you to perform case insensitive search.

c# string to enum mapping

1 Answers1