Enum to formatted string

Question

public enum WebWizDateFormat
{
    DDMMYY,
    MMDDYY,
    YYDDMM,
    YYMMDD
}

public class WebWizForumUser
{
    public WebWizDateFormat DateFormat { get; set; }

    public WebWizForumUser()
    {
        this.DateFormat = WebWizDateFormat.DDMMYY;
        HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(this.DateFormat);
    }
}

This works, but when I response.write it needs to come out in the format "dd/mm/yy", how can I do this?

If I'm not mistaken by default, the string representation of the enum is returned. I interpret the question now as you wanting to make it lower case and add slashes? — Steven Jeuris, Mar 19 '11 at 17:12
@Steven yes, declaring the enum type as dd/mm/yy doesn't work — Tom Gullen, Mar 19 '11 at 17:13
In that case, simple string manipulations would work ofcourse, but consider using bobbymcr's answer instead. — Steven Jeuris, Mar 19 '11 at 17:14

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 19 '11 at 17:12

6

The simple answer is don't use an enum for this. How about a static class?

public static class WebWizDateFormat
{
    public const string USFormat = "MM/DD/YY";
    public const string UKFormat = "DD/MM/YY";
}

// . . .
string dateFormat = WebWizDateFormat.USFormat;

(Just a sample, rename the fields to whatever makes sense for you.)

answered Mar 19 '11 at 17:12

bobbymcr

23,769
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I don't really like dropping the use of enums here, but +1 because this abstracts out from MMDDYY, etc to "localized" formats. – Mar 19 '11 at 17:15

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 19 '11 at 17:12

Easiest way would be to just use a Dictionary<WebWizDateFormat,string> that you populate with corresponding string represenations for your enum, i.e.

DateMapping[WebWizDateFormat.DDMMYY] = "dd/mm/yy";

then you can just do

HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(DateMapping[this.DateFormat]);

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

0

Your rules regarding this conversion are not clear. You could do something like that:

this.DateFormat.ToLower().Insert(4, "\\").Insert(2,"\\");

But I doubt, that is what you meant... ;-)
This could also be helpful to you: Enum ToString with user friendly strings

edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

Community

1
1

answered Mar 19 '11 at 17:13

Daniel Hilgarth

171,043
40
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score 0 · Answer 4 · 2011-03-19T17:19:38.927

Preamble: I would advise against using an enum item name to represent data (you can get the string name of a given enum value and type). I would also advise using implicitly assigned enum values as subtle changes such as adding or removing an enum item may create subtle incompatible changes/bugs.

In this case I may just create a map from an enum-value to a string format, such as:

public enum WebWizDateFormat
{
    DDMMYY = 1,
    MMDDYY = 2,
    YYDDMM = 3,
    YYMMDD = 4,
    // but better, maybe, as this abstracts out the "localization"
    // it is not mutually exclusive with the above
    // however, .NET *already* supports various localized date formats
    // which the mapping below could be altered to take advantage
    ShortUS = 10, // means "mm/dd/yy",
    LongUK = ...,
}

public IDictionary<string,string> WebWizDateFormatMap = new Dictionary<string,string> {
    { WebWizDateFormat.DDMMYY, "dd/mm/yy" },
    // "localized" version, same as MMDDYY
    { WebWizDateFormat.ShortUS, "mm/dd/yy" },
    ... // define for -all-
};

// to use later
string format = WebWizDateFormatMap[WebWizDateFormat.ShortUS];

Happy coding

Enum to formatted string

4 Answers4