How to convert string array to enum?

Question

Let's say item.Products is "1,3" and I have enum Products

public enum Products
{
    [Description("Product A")]
    ProductA = 1,
    [Description("Product B")]
    ProductB = 2,
    [Description("Product C")]
    ProductC = 3
}

How do I convert from "1,3" to "ProductA, ProductC"?

Answer 1

Split and use GetName of the Enum, after that join with string.join

string.Join(",", input.Split(new[] {','}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
   .Select(x=>Enum.GetName(typeof(Products), int.Parse(x))))

Answer 2

The others have given you good answers. If you want a more elegant way to do it though (imho), you could try install a NuGet package of mine: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Extenso.Core/

and then use it like this:

string values = "1,3";
string result = string.Join(", ", values.Split(',').ToListOf<int>().Select(x => EnumExtensions.GetDisplayName(((Products)x))));
Console.WriteLine(result);

With these usings:

using Extenso;
using Extenso.Collections;

You should definitely choose one of the others as the answer, as they don't require NuGet packages. That said, you can find the source code for this on GitHub: https://github.com/gordon-matt/Extenso/

Answer 3

Thanks to canton7

The solution is first split the input by comma, then cast it into enum and store into IEnumerable. Then use extension class to get the description name and store into array. Lastly join the array into a string.

IEnumerable<Products> productSplit = item.Products.Split(',').Select(x => (Products)int.Parse(x));
string[] productArray = productSplit.Select(p=>p.ToName()).ToArray();
string products = string.Join(", ", productArray);

and extension class

public static class MyEnumExtensions
{        
    // This extension method is broken out so you can use a similar pattern with 
    // other MetaData elements in the future. This is your base method for each.
    public static T GetAttribute<T>(this Products value) where T : Attribute
    {
        var type = value.GetType();
        var memberInfo = type.GetMember(value.ToString());
        var attributes = memberInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(T), false);
        return attributes.Length > 0
          ? (T)attributes[0]
          : null;
    }

    // This method creates a specific call to the above method, requesting the
    // Description MetaData attribute.
    public static string ToName(this Products value)
    {
        var attribute = value.GetAttribute<DescriptionAttribute>();
        return attribute == null ? value.ToString() : attribute.Description;
    }

}

Answer 4

@Steve - Here is the Class and Conversion code. You also also assign different integer values to enum (not in sequence) and it will work like charm.

public enum Products
{
    [Description("Product A")]
    ProductA = 1,
    [Description("Product B")]
    ProductB = 2,
    [Description("Product C")]
    ProductC = 3
}

Conversion

string numericOutput = $" {(int)Products.ProductA}, {(int)Products.ProductB}, {(int)Products.ProductC}";
Console.WriteLine(numericOutput); // 1, 2, 3

string enumOutput = $" {(Products)1}, {(Products)2}, {(Products)3}";
Console.WriteLine(enumOutput);//ProductA, ProductB, ProductC

Dynamically handling of inputs

for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
    Products products;
    if (Enum.TryParse(i.ToString(), true, out products) && Enum.IsDefined(typeof(Products), products))
        Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1}", i.ToString(), products.ToString());
    else
        Console.WriteLine("{0} is not a value of the enum", i.ToString());
}

//output

0 is not a value of the enum

Converted '1' to ProductA

Converted '2' to ProductB

Converted '3' to ProductC

4 is not a value of the enum