How to get Display Enum value from string input

Question

How do I get the value of an enum through input?

enum Planets
{
   Mercury = 0,
   Venus,
   Earth
}

I want something like when a user inputs a string for example I get the Enum integer Value of that input.

UserInput: Mercury

Value: 0

I did something like this:

Console.WriteLine("Value: "+(Planets)UserInput);

and as you can guess it won't compile.

I think you want to parse the enum. See for example https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8922930/net-custom-configuration-how-to-case-insensitive-parse-an-enum-configurationpro — Michiel Leegwater, Jul 20 '19 at 07:52

joehoper · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-20T08:03:20.127

2

var planet = (Planets)Enum.Parse(typeof(Planets), UserInput);
int planetNumber = (int)planet;

edited Jul 20 '19 at 08:03

answered Jul 20 '19 at 07:52

joehoper

404
3
5

This returns The Name of that particular Enum, but not the value – Gashio Lee Jul 20 '19 at 08:01
Edited with cast to int. – joehoper Jul 20 '19 at 08:03
If the user enters an invalid planet, this example will result in an exception. See my answer for a solution for that. – pappbence96 Jul 20 '19 at 08:10

pappbence96 · Answer 2 · 2019-07-20T08:09:55.423

First, you have to cast your input string into an enum of your choice. That can be done with Enum.Parse(Type, String):

Planets planet = Enum.Parse(typeof(Planets), "Mercury")

Then you need to get the numerical value from the enum, which is a simple cast to integer:

int value = (int)planet;

Be careful with the first step: if the user inputs a string that is not valid, you'll get an exception which you'll have to handle. To avoid that you can use the Enum.TryParse() method which return a bool indicating the success of the action and pass the resulting enum as an out parameter.

Planets result;
bool success = Enum.TryParse<Planets>("Mars", true, out result);
if(success){
    Console.Write((int)result);
} else {
    Console.Write("no match");
}

The OP will find out soon enough that parsing user input requires validation. — Jimi, Jul 20 '19 at 08:20

How to get Display Enum value from string input

2 Answers2