How do I Convert a String to an Enum Value?

Introduction

I have an enum SortFilter, which looks like the following.

public enum SortFilter
{
FirstName,
LastName,
Age,
Experience
}

Now, let's say I want to display the string value of an enum in some control. For that, I will have to convert the Enum value to a string. For example, I want to add all enum string values to a DropDownList. Here SortByList is DropDownList. The following code loops through the enumeration and adds string values to it.

SortByList.Items.Clear();

// Conversion from Enum to String
foreach (string item in Enum.GetNames(typeof(ArrayListBinding.SortFilter)))
{
 SortByList.Items.Add(item);

} 

Now let's say you have an enum string value say, "FirstName," and you want to convert it to Enum value. The following code converts from a string to a num value, where Developer.SortingBy is of type SortFilter enumeration:

// Conversion from String to Enum
Developer.SortingBy = (SortFilter)Enum.Parse(typeof(SortFilter), "FirstName");  

Note. Quach adds the below note. See below article comments for more details.

You can also access the enum using GetValues and GetName:

using System;
namespace Test
{
  public class Class1
  {
    enum Fruit
    {
      Orange,
      Apple,
      Cherry,
      Banana
    }

    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      foreach (Fruit f in Enum.GetValues(typeof(Fruit)))
      {
        Console.WriteLine(f);
      }
      string name = Enum.GetName(typeof(Fruit), Fruit.Cherry);
      Console.WriteLine(name);
    }
  }
}

Summary

This article taught us how to convert a String to an Enum Value. 

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