How can I parse a string in VB.NET to enum value?
Example I have this enum:
Public Enum Gender
NotDefined
Male
Female
End Enum
how can I convert a string "Male" to the Gender enum's Male value?
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4 Answers
Dim val = DirectCast([Enum].Parse(GetType(Gender), "Male"), Gender)
4 Comments
Oghenero E.
what if i don't know the type and wanted to convert generally. in this example you specified
Male. i saved the enum value in database and am trying to get it back. in this case i might not know thw actual value that i saved since am converting toString
Kamarey
You should save the related Enum type with the value, say "Namespaces.EnumName". After you can use reflection to get the Type object by name: Dim t = Type.GetType("Namespaces.EnumName") and pass the 't' instead of 'GetType(Gender)'. Also you will have to cast the result value. To do this you must know the specific enum type while writing code.
motto
In .NET 4.0 the syntax is simply:
Parse(enumType As System.Type, value As String) As Object
maxhodges
He's asking for the value of the enum, but this snippet just returns an Enum object based from the string. Should be:
DirectCast([Enum].Parse(GetType(Gender), "Male"), Integer)See Enum.TryParse.
3 Comments
David.Chu.ca
There is only Parse() method. Not sure where is the Enum.TryParse() method?
Alex Angas
@David: Enum.TryParse() is available in .NET 4
Daniël Tulp
correct link, can't edit the answer as it is less then 30 characters: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd783499.aspx
how can I convert a string "Male" to the Gender enum's Male value?
The accepted solution returns an Enum object. To return the value you want this solution:
dim MyGender as string = "Male"
dim Value as integer
Value = DirectCast([Enum].Parse(GetType(Gender), MyGender), Integer)
Can also do it this way:
value = cInt([enum].Parse(GetType(Gender), MyGender))
Comments
If you want the parse to be case insensitive, you can use the following:
[Enum].Parse(Gender, DirectCast(MyGender, String), True)
This will handle dim MyGender as string = "Male" or dim MyGender as string = "male"
