Help with enums and Enum.Parse

Question

I'm new to enum.

I've got this enum:

public enum Categories
{
    Animals,
    Animations,
    Accessories,
    Apearance,
    Clothing,
    Gadgets,
    Land,
    Scripts,
    Vehicles,
    Weapons,
    Other
}

Then I have this variable: private Categories Category; I'm trying to parse user input (string) so that Category will be equal to the right enum.

this.Category = Enum.Parse(Categories ,cat);

And I get this Error:

'Product.Categories' is a 'type' but is used like a 'variable'

I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.

BoltClock · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-05 16:48:45Z

4

To get the Type object to use with a method like Enum.Parse(), use the typeof operator with the type name. You also need to perform a cast from object (which it returns) to your enum:

this.Category = (Categories) Enum.Parse(typeof(Categories), cat);

answered May 5, 2011 at 16:48

BoltClock

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1 Comment

Matt Over a year ago

To add to the above answer, there is also an example for this on msdn

Jeff Yates · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-05 16:49:19Z

3

Pass typeof(Categories) instead of Categories and add a cast, like this:

this.Category = (Categories)Enum.Parse(typeof(Categories), cat);

This assumes that this.Category is of type Categories and is required because Enum.Parse returns a value of type, object.

answered May 5, 2011 at 16:49

Jeff Yates

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1 Comment

BoltClock Over a year ago

this.Category is indeed declared as such :)

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