Csharp enum to string

Converting Enums to Strings in C#

This blog explores different methods to convert enums to strings in C# with program examples, outputs, and explanations. From using Enum.GetName() and Enum.ToString() to Enum.GetValues() and Description attribute, learn different ways to achieve this common requirement in C# programming.

Introduction:

Enums in C# are a powerful way to define a set of named constants that represent distinct values of a type. However, there may be scenarios where you need to convert an enum value to a string for various purposes such as displaying it in a user interface or logging. In this blog, we will explore different methods to convert enums to strings in C#, along with their program examples, outputs, and explanations.

Method 1: Using Enum.GetName() Method

The first method to convert enums to strings in C# is by using the Enum.GetName() method. This method returns the name of the constant that has the specified value in the specified enumeration.

using System; public enum Colors < Red, Blue, Green, Yellow >class Program < static void Main() < Colors color = Colors.Blue; string colorString = Enum.GetName(typeof(Colors), color); Console.WriteLine("Enum value: " + color); Console.WriteLine("Enum string: " + colorString); >> 

Output:

Enum value: Blue Enum string: Blue 

In the above example, we define an enum called «Colors» with four constants. We then declare a variable «color» of type «Colors» and assign it the value «Colors.Blue». We use the Enum.GetName() method to get the name of the enum constant «Blue» associated with the value of «color» variable, which is «Blue». The resulting string is then printed on the console.

Method 2: Using Enum.ToString() Method

The second method to convert enums to strings in C# is by using the Enum.ToString() method. This method returns the string representation of the current enum object.

using System; public enum Days < Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday >class Program < static void Main() < Days day = Days.Wednesday; string dayString = day.ToString(); Console.WriteLine("Enum value: " + day); Console.WriteLine("Enum string: " + dayString); >> 

Enum value: Wednesday Enum string: Wednesday 

In the above example, we define an enum called «Days» with seven constants representing the days of the week. We then declare a variable «day» of type «Days» and assign it the value «Days.Wednesday». We use the ToString() method to get the string representation of the enum constant «Wednesday» associated with the value of «day» variable, which is «Wednesday». The resulting string is then printed on the console.

Method 3: Using Enum.GetValues() Method

The third method to convert enums to strings in C# is by using the Enum.GetValues() method in combination with a foreach loop. This method returns an array of the values of the constants in the enum.

using System; public enum Seasons < Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter >class Program < static void Main() < foreach (Seasons season in Enum.GetValues(typeof(Seasons))) < Console.WriteLine("Enum value: " + season); Console.WriteLine("Enum string: " + season.ToString()); >> > 

Output:

Enum value: Spring Enum string: Spring Enum value: Summer Enum string: Summer Enum value: Autumn Enum string: Autumn Enum value: Winter Enum string: Winter 

In the above example, we define an enum called «Seasons» with four constants representing the seasons. We then use the Enum.GetValues() method to get an array of all the enum values. We iterate through the array using a foreach loop and print the enum value and its string representation using the ToString() method on the console.

Method 4: Using Enum.GetName() and Description Attribute

The fourth method to convert enums to strings in C# is by using the Enum.GetName() method in combination with the Description attribute. The Description attribute allows you to associate a human-readable description with each enum constant, which can be used as a string representation.

using System; using System.ComponentModel; public enum Gender < [Description("Male")] M, [Description("Female")] F, [Description("Other")] O >class Program < static void Main() < Gender gender = Gender.F; string genderString = GetEnumDescription(gender); Console.WriteLine("Enum value: " + gender); Console.WriteLine("Enum string: " + genderString); >static string GetEnumDescription(Enum value) < var fieldInfo = value.GetType().GetField(value.ToString()); var attributes = (DescriptionAttribute[])fieldInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false); return attributes.Length >0 ? attributes[0].Description : value.ToString(); > > 

Output:

Enum value: F Enum string: Female 

In the above example, we define an enum called «Gender» with three constants, each associated with a Description attribute representing a human-readable description. We then define a helper method called «GetEnumDescription()» that takes an enum value as input and returns its description string. Inside the helper method, we use reflection to get the Description attribute associated with the enum constant and retrieve its value. If the Description attribute is not present, we simply return the enum value’s ToString() method. This way, we can get the string representation of the enum constant based on the Description attribute associated with it.

Conclusion:

Converting enums to strings in C# is a common requirement in various scenarios. In this blog, we explored different methods to achieve this, including using Enum.GetName(), Enum.ToString(), Enum.GetValues(), and Enum.GetName() with Description attribute. Each method has its own advantages and can be used based on the specific use case and requirements of your application. By understanding these methods, you can effectively convert enums to strings in your C# code and display or use them as needed.

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How to Get an Enum Member as a String in C#

In this article, we’re going to learn how to get a string representation of an enum member in C#.

The possibility of defining enumeration types in C# – most widely known by the keyword enum – is a very useful feature. We can use them to assign named constants that represent different possible states of a single type. However, since it’s only possible for us to assign integral numeric values to these constants, there are situations where we prefer the string representation that shows us more clearly what the enum value means.

In these cases, we can use a few options to get the string representation of an enum value.

When to Get the Enum Member as a String?

When working with real-life data, it’s not always convenient to have an integer value representing a piece of information. Since an enum outputs an int by default, it might not be the cleanest way to work with them in such cases.

Consider, for instance, a situation in which you must send some information to a database, and one of the fields happens to be represented by an enum in the source code. If you simply save the data as is, the information about that specific field is stored as an int . But there are cases where a number isn’t enough for conveying information.

As an example of that behavior, consider we have an enum that represents one of three different countries:

After that, we can then create a Person class that uses this enum to set data relating to a person’s country of birth:

public class Person < public string Name < get; set; >public Country Country < get; set; >public Person(string name, Country country) < Name = name; Country = country; >>

Now, if we try to save an instance of the Person class to any database with just the raw values, the Country field is represented as an int . For instance, an object that has been instantiated as new Person(«Bob», Country.USA); will look like this in the database:

Hence, any person looking at the data won’t be able to know in which country Bob was born. In this case, it would be better to represent Country as a string, making its underlying value clearer for anyone working with that data (in the code).

Additionally, you may need to get the enum value as a string to guarantee consistency between different domains.

For instance, consider that your API must connect to another that uses its own Country enumerable. In this case, even if the countries match, a different order of declaration can scramble the information by mixing up the int values.

The Enum.GetName() Method

As we have seen, knowing how to get an enum member as a string in C# can be essential. Luckily for us, there are a few methods that we can use to do that. The first one we’re going to talk about is the Enum.GetName() method.

This is a static method that has the following signature:

public static string? GetName (Type enumType, object value);

Considering the Country enumerable that we declared earlier, we can get a string value:

var strCountry = Enum.GetName(typeof(Country), 0); Console.WriteLine(strCountry); // USA

Since the GetName() method’s return type is a nullable string , if we pass it an invalid integer value it returns a null value instead of a string representation.

By exploiting that behavior, we can set up a fallback logic when the value is not present:

var strCountry = Enum.GetName(typeof(Country), 20); strCountry ??= "Unknown"; Console.WriteLine(strCountry); // Unknown

In this case, we used a null-coalescing assignment to set a default value of “Unknown” if there is no member with the integer value.

As such, by using the Enum.GetName() static method we can easily get the string representation of an enum .

All we need to do is to get its type and the desired member’s underlying integer value.

The Enum.ToString() Method

We already know how to get a string representation of an enum by using its type and an integer value. But in most cases, we work directly with object instances that contain the enum value. In cases like this, it’s easier to get the string value by using the Enum.ToString() method.

Wanna join Code Maze Team, help us produce more awesome .NET/C# content and get paid? >> JOIN US! ToString() method on it:

var bob = new Person("Bob", Country.USA); var strCountry = bob.Country.ToString(); Console.WriteLine(strCountry); // USA

In comparison, if we wanted to do the same operation using the GetName() method:

var bob = new Person("Bob", Country.USA); var strCountry = Enum.GetName(typeof(Country), bob.Country); Console.WriteLine(strCountry); // USA

The difference isn’t that huge, but calling the ToString() method directly is slightly simpler and makes our code more readable.

Even if we don’t have an instance with a set enum value, it’s still possible to use the ToString() method. Since its members are constants, calling the method from one of them directly works the same:

var strCountry = Country.India.ToString(); Console.WriteLine(strCountry); // India

For that reason, while the GetName() method can be used in such cases, but it’s not the best choice usually. As a general rule, you should only use it when working with integer values. In most other cases, the ToString() method is the preferable way of getting an enum member as a string in C#.

The nameof Expression

The final way of getting a string from an enum member in C# is by using the nameof expression.

What sets this method apart is that instead of evaluating the string at runtime, it sets the name of the enum member during compile time. As such, it’s generally faster than the other methods.

But there is a catch. The nameof expression gets the name of a variable, type, or member as a string constant, in that order.

Considering that, the usage of nameof to get string values of enum members is very specific. When there are so many calls to the ToString() method that it becomes a performance issue, setting the string representation at compile time is a sound choice. But keep in mind that this only works for direct calls to the enum member.

If the enum value is stored in a variable, we must use choose one of the previous methods.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve learned why and how to get a string representation of an enum member in C#. We went over three different methods of doing it and discussed situations in which to choose one over the other.

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Convert An Enum To String In C#

In this blog post, we will convert an Enum to string in C#.

An enumeration type (or enum type) is a value type defined by a set of named constants of the underlying integral numeric type.

We can convert an enum to a string using the .ToString() method on the Enum.

Let’s see this in an example:

Console.WriteLine(Season.Summer.ToString()); // Result: Summer Console.WriteLine(Season.Spring.ToString()); // Result: Spring

In the above code example, we can see that we can convert any Enum value to a string value in C# and then once it has been converted to a string, we can use any methods that are available to strings on that variable.

Why Do We Need To Convert An Enum To String

In some scenarios, we need to convert an Enum value to string just because we want to store it in the database.

In some situations, we want to display the value of an enum on the UI or our application, so we would need a conversion from an Enum type to a string type.

Example: The months of an year can be displayed as a dropdown by storing the months as an Enum and then iterating on the Enum to display on the UI by converting all of the Enum values to string values.

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