Get Enum Value from String

February 20, 2008

Here is a quick tip.  If you have the following Enum

Enum Frequencies
   DAILY
   WEEKLY
   MONTHLY
End Enum

And you want to get the enum value from a string, you can:

Dim myString as String = "WEEKLY"
Dim val as Frequencies = _

         System.Enum.Parse(GetType(Frequencies), myString)

If you try to parse a string that doesn’t exist e.g. "YEARLY", an ArgumentException exception is thrown with a message "Requested value ‘YEARLY’ was not found".

Also note that the string is case-sensitive, so "Weekly" will also throw the same exception.

Posted in .net, Programming, Tips & Tricks