Is it possible to have the compiler automatically convert my Enum values to strings so I can avoid explicitly calling the ToString method every time. Here's an example of what I'd like to do:
enum Rank { A, B, C }
Rank myRank = Rank.A;
string myString = Rank.A; // Error: Cannot implicitly convert type 'Rank' to 'string'
string myString2 = Rank.A.ToString(); // OK: but is extra work
No. An enum is its own type, so if you want to convert it to something else, you have to do some work.
However, depending on what you're doing with it, some methods will call ToString() on it automatically for you. For example, you can do:
Console.Writeline(Rank.A);
Console.WriteLine, it just has an overload that takes an Object and the enum is getting boxed, passed as an object and then WriteLine calls ToString on it.
You are not probably looking for enums itself, but a list of string constant. It can fit your needs better in some scenarios.
Use this instead:
public static class Rank
{
public const string A = "A";
public const string B = "B";
public const string C = "C";
}
No, but at least you can do things with enums that will call their ToString() methods when you might need to use their string value, e.g.:
Console.WriteLine(Rank.A); //prints "A".
The correct syntax should be
myRank.ToString("F");
[Caution, hack] Unsure as to whether this is nasty, to me it seems a reasonable compromise.
var myEnumAsString = MyEnum+"";
Console.WriteLine(myEnumAsString); //MyEnum
This will force implicit ToString()
I know it is quite a late answer but nowadays you can do something like:
enum Rank { A, B, C }
public static class Ranks
{
public const string A = nameof(Rank.A);
public const string B = nameof(Rank.B);
public const string C = nameof(Rank.C);
}
This is helpful because nameof is executed during compilation therefore you can use it as a const:
[Authorize(Roles = Ranks.A)]
This question was asked many years ago, but nevertheless...
Here's a very easy way to get a string[] from an enum:
public static string[] EnumToStr<T>() where T : Enum
{
return Enum.GetNames(typeof(T));
}
Simply use it like this:
public enum Test
{
alpha,
beta,
gamma
}
var test_str = EnumToStr<Test>();
foreach (var name in test_str)
Console.WriteLine(name);
