Parse enum from String not working

Question

I have a public enum declared like this:

public enum States
    {
        SomeState,
        SomeOtherState
    }

Having an arbitrary string myString which may represent any of the "States" above, I'd like to write a switch to check which one it currently is.

This is my attempt.

States state = Enum.Parse(States, myString, true);
            switch (state)
            {
                case States.SomeState:
                case States.SomeOtherState:
                    break;
                default:
                    break;
            }

Inside of the Enum.Parse() it tells me that the argument State is being used as a type instead that as a variable. Isn't that the correct usage? The first argument Enum.Parse is supposed to receive is Type enumType : why then it tells me it needs a variable?

---

Many kind replies indicates to use typeof . Unfortunately, I've already tried that but since I receive the following error I guessed it was a wrong idea.

Enum.Parse(typeof(States), myString, true);

yields:

cannot implicitly convert type 'object' to 'States'. An explicit conversion exists.

Answer 1

Yes, you need to send in the Type of enum that your are parsing into (using typeof ):

States state = (States)Enum.Parse(typeof(States), myString, true);

The Parse method is expecting an argument of type System.Type . Not the type States .

Here is the signature from the docs .

[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
public static Object Parse(
    Type enumType,
    string value,
    bool ignoreCase
)

Parse returns an object so it requires you to cast to your type after the parse.

Answer 2

Since it is expecting a type, change Enum.Parse(States, myString, true) ; to Enum.Parse(typeof(States), myString, true);

Answer 3

This is the correct one.

States state = Enum.Parse(typeof(States), myString, true);
switch (state)
{
    case States.SomeState:
    case States.SomeOtherState:
        break;
    default:
        break;
}

Answer 4

States tmp;
 Enum.TryParse<States>(myString,true ,out tmp);

Answer 5

Can Make it more elegant by using extension class like so:

namespace YourClass.Models;

public static class Converters
{
    public static T ConvertToEnum<T>(this string value) where T : Enum
        => (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), value);
}