Is there a way to convert from a list of strings to an enum flag in c#?

Question

I have a list of strings in an xml document:

<properties>red yellow blue</properties>

and I have an enum:

[Flags]
public enum Properties 
{
    None    = 0,
    red = 1,
    yellow = 2,
    blue = 4,
    green = 8
}

Is there a way to convert the XML string into the enum flag value of 7 or 0111?

There are countless resources around about doing the reverse of this, but I'm having trouble finding any information on converting from a string to Flags.

Answer 1

Yes, but you need them to be comma separated:

[Flags]
public enum Test
{
    A = 1,
    B = 2,
    C = 4
}

Test t;
Enum.TryParse<Test>("A,B", out t);

Since you can't have spaces in the names, you can just do a string replace of space to comma before calling TryParse.

Answer 2

Sure

string flags = "red yellow blue";

var eflags = flags.Split()
                  .Select(s => (Properties)Enum.Parse(typeof(Properties), s))
                  .Aggregate((a, e) => a | e);

Console.WriteLine(eflags);
Console.WriteLine((int)eflags);

Outpus

red, yellow, blue

7

I'll leave how to get the string out of the xml up to you.