Convert String to/from Enum in C# with Examples

This tutorial covers the following topics in C#:

• How to convert a String to Enum constants
• How to parse Enum to String in C#
• Convert all Enum constants to String using a for loop

Enum is a custom special class type that holds a group of constant values, which can be either strings or numbers. You can refer to my other post on Converting Int to Enum in C#.

String is a native predefined type in C# that stores a group of Unicode characters.

Automatic conversion is not possible due to different types of data.

Let’s declare Enum constants in C#, where Enum constants contain an int value.

public enum DAYS : int{
    Monday = 1,
    Tuesday = 2,
    Wednesday = 3,
    Thursday = 4,
    Friday = 5,
    Saturday = 6,
    Sunday = 7,
}

#How to Convert Enum to String in C#

The first method involves using the Enum.Parse() method. Enum.Parse() takes an Enum and a String, returning an object that needs to be cast to the .

using System;

public class Program
{
  public static void Main()
  {
    var currentDay="Monday";
    DAYS myday = (DAYS)Enum.Parse(typeof(DAYS),currentDay);

    Console.WriteLine(myday);
  }
}

If the string is null or empty, it throws an error.

Compilation error (line 7, col 7): Cannot assign <null> to an implicitly-typed variable.

To handle this, you can check for null or empty before parsing.

The second method involves using Enum.GetName, which returns the string value for an Enum.

    DAYS myday=DAYS.Monday;
    var str = Enum.GetName(typeof (DAYS), myday);

#How to Convert String to Enum in C#

C# provides ToString() on Enum values, which returns the string version of an Enum.

Here is an example

using System;

public class Program
{
  public static void Main()
  {

    Console.WriteLine(DAYS.Tuesday.ToString());

  }
}

public enum DAYS {
    Monday,
    Tuesday ,
    Wednesday ,
    Thursday ,
    Friday ,
    Saturday,
    Sunday ,
}

For example, to iterate through Enum values and print the string version of Enum:

This approach uses a for loop to iterate from the start value of the Enum to its end, printing the string representation of each Enum value.

using System;

public class Program
{
  public static void Main()
  {
  for (DAYS days = DAYS.Monday; days <= DAYS.Sunday; days++)
    {
        string day = days.ToString();
        Console.WriteLine(day);
    }
  }
}

#Conclusion

C# provides multiple ways to convert a String to/from an Enum.