How do I select an enum value from the string representation of the 'name'?

Question

I have enum like this

public enum PetType
{
    Dog = 1,
    Cat = 2
}

I also have string pet = "Dog" . How do I return 1? Pseudo code I'm thinking about is:

select Dog_Id from PetType where PetName = pet

Answer 1

Use the Enum.Parse method to get the enum value from the string, then cast to int:

string pet = "Dog";
PetType petType = (PetType)Enum.Parse(typeof(PetType), pet);
int petValue = (int)petType;

Answer 2

If you are using .Net 4 you can use Enum.TryParse

PetType result;
if (Enum.TryParse<PetType>(pet, out result))
    return (int)result;
else
    throw something with an error message

Answer 3

Others already suggested to use Enum.Parse() but be careful with this method, because it doesn't just parse name of the enum, but also tries to match its value. To make it clear let's check small example:

PetType petTypeA = (PetType)Enum.Parse(typeof(PetType), "Dog");
PetType petTypeB = (PetType)Enum.Parse(typeof(PetType), "1");

The result of both parse calls will be PetType.Dog (which can be casted to int of course).

In most cases such behavior will be OK, but not always, and this is worth to remember how the Enum.Parse() method behaves.

Answer 4

you can use a string as parameter like

int pet=1;
PetType petType = (PetType)Enum.Parse(typeof(PetType), pet.ToString());

Or

string pet="Dog";
PetType petType = (PetType)Enum.Parse(typeof(PetType), pet);

Answer 5

(PetType)Enum.Parse(typeof(PetType), pet)