how do I create an enum from a string representation? c#

im trying to pass back from a user control a list of strings that are part of an enum, like this:

<bni:products id="bnProducts" runat="server" ProductsList="First, Second, Third"  />

and in the code behid do something like this:

public enum MS 
    {
     First = 1,
     Second,
     Third
    };
    private MS[] _ProductList;
    public MS[] ProductsList
    {
     get
     {
      return _ProductList;
     }
     set
     {
      _ProductList = how_to_turn_string_to_enum_list;
     }
    }

my problem is I dont know how to turn that string into a list of enum, so what should be "how_to_turn_string_to_enum_list"? or do you know of a better way to use enums in user controls? I really want to be able to pass a list that neat

From stackoverflow

• You need to look at the System.Enum.Parse method.

  Best Regards

  Ayyash : this one "or"s the values passed, not what im looking for

  Oliver Hanappi : What do you mean exactly? Of course this method just converts one single value to an Enum, you need to loop through all and apply the method on each element ;)

• string[] stringValues = inputValue.Split(',');
  
  _ProductList = new MS[stringValues.Length];
  
  for (int i=0;i< stringValues.Length;i++)
    _ProductList[i] = (MS) Enum.Parse(typeof(MS), stringValues[i].Trim());
  

  (updated my code because I misread your code)

• Enum.Parse is the canonical way to parse a string to get an enum:

  MS ms = (MS) Enum.Parse(typeof(MS), "First");
  

  but you'll need to do the string splitting yourself.

  However, your property is currently of type MS[] - the value variable in the setter won't be a string. I suspect you'll need to make your property a string, and parse it there, storing the results in a MS[]. For example:

  private MS[] products;
  
  public string ProductsList
  {
      get
      {
          return string.Join(", ", Array.ConvertAll(products, x => x.ToString()));
      }
      set
      {
          string[] names = value.Split(',');
          products = names.Select(name => (MS) Enum.Parse(typeof(MS), name.Trim()))
                          .ToArray();
      }
  }
  

  I don't know whether you'll need to expose the array itself directly - that depends on what you're trying to do.

  Hans Kesting : eh, Enum.Parse needs a Type if I am not mistaken? MS ms = (MS)Enum.Parse(typeof(MS), "First");

  Jon Skeet : Oops, thanks :)

  Ayyash : you're right, it sould be a string, i would combine this answer with "280Z28" answer above because i think the CovertAll is more elegent, thanks

• This is a short solution, but it doesn't cover some very important things like localization and invalid inputs.

  private static MS[] ConvertStringToEnumArray(string text)
  {
      string[] values = text.Split(new char[] { ' ', ',' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
      return Array.ConvertAll(values, value => (MS)Enum.Parse(typeof(MS), value));
  }
  

  Jon Skeet : +1 for validation. From the example, localization isn't much of an issue because this isn't user-supplied data - it's in the page code.

• Mark your enum with the [Flags] attribute, and combine flags instead of an array of enum values.

  Jon Skeet : That's not always valid. For instance, HTTP response codes aren't *logically* flags - but you might have a collection of them (e.g. "I handle these response codes"). Don't rush to use flags for enums which aren't logically flags.