Convert String to/from Enum in C# with examples

This tutorial explains about following things in C#

• How to convert String to Enum constants

• How to parse Enum to String in C Sharp?

• Convert all Enum constants to String using for loop

  Enum is a custom special class type to have a group of constant values. the values can be strings or numbers.

  You can check my other post on Converting Int to Enum in CSharp

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#, 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 way, using Enum.parse() method Enum.parse() takes Enum and String and returns an object, cast this to Enum

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

The second way, Enum.GetName 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 and 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 Enum and print the string version of Enum.

Using for Loop, Iteration starts with Enum start value, increment enum until reaches end enum constants.

Finally, Print the Enum string 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);
    }
  }
}