How do I cast int to enum in C#?

How do I cast an int to an enum in C#?

From an int:

YourEnum foo = (YourEnum)yourInt;

From a string:

YourEnum foo = (YourEnum) Enum.Parse(typeof(YourEnum), yourString);

// The foo.ToString().Contains(",") check is necessary for 
// enumerations marked with a [Flags] attribute.
if (!Enum.IsDefined(typeof(YourEnum), foo) && !foo.ToString().Contains(","))
{
    throw new InvalidOperationException(
        $"{yourString} is not an underlying value of the YourEnum enumeration."
    );
}

Dynamically (type not known at compile-time):

Type enumType = ...;

// NB: Enums can specify a base type other than 'int'
int numericValue = ...;

object boxedEnumValue = Enum.ToObject(enumType, numericValue);

Just cast it:

MyEnum e = (MyEnum)3;

Check if it's in range using Enum.IsDefined:

if (Enum.IsDefined(typeof(MyEnum), 3)) { ... }

Alternatively, use an extension method instead of a one-liner:

public static T ToEnum<T>(this string enumString)
{
    return (T) Enum.Parse(typeof (T), enumString);
}

Usage:

Color colorEnum = "Red".ToEnum<Color>();

OR

string color = "Red";
var colorEnum = color.ToEnum<Color>();

I think to get a complete answer, people have to know how enums work internally in .NET.

How stuff works

An enum in .NET is a structure that maps a set of values (fields) to a basic type (the default is int). However, you can actually choose the integral type that your enum maps to:

public enum Foo : short

In this case the enum is mapped to the short data type, which means it will be stored in memory as a short and will behave as a short when you cast and use it.

If you look at it from a IL point of view, a (normal, int) enum looks like this:

.class public auto ansi serializable sealed BarFlag extends System.Enum
{
    .custom instance void System.FlagsAttribute::.ctor()
    .custom instance void ComVisibleAttribute::.ctor(bool) = { bool(true) }

    .field public static literal valuetype BarFlag AllFlags = int32(0x3fff)
    .field public static literal valuetype BarFlag Foo1 = int32(1)
    .field public static literal valuetype BarFlag Foo2 = int32(0x2000)

    // and so on for all flags or enum values

    .field public specialname rtspecialname int32 value__
}

What should get your attention here is that the value__ is stored separately from the enum values. In the case of the enum Foo above, the type of value__ is int16. This basically means that you can store whatever you want in an enum, as long as the types match.

At this point I'd like to point out that System.Enum is a value type, which basically means that BarFlag will take up 4 bytes in memory and Foo will take up 2 -- e.g. the size of the underlying type (it's actually more complicated than that, but hey...).

The answer

So, if you have an integer that you want to map to an enum, the runtime only has to do 2 things: copy the 4 bytes and name it something else (the name of the enum). Copying is implicit because the data is stored as value type - this basically means that if you use unmanaged code, you can simply interchange enums and integers without copying data.

To make it safe, I think it's a best practice to know that the underlying types are the same or implicitly convertible and to ensure the enum values exist (they aren't checked by default!).

To see how this works, try the following code:

public enum MyEnum : int
{
    Foo = 1,
    Bar = 2,
    Mek = 5
}

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var e1 = (MyEnum)5;
    var e2 = (MyEnum)6;

    Console.WriteLine("{0} {1}", e1, e2);
    Console.ReadLine();
}

Note that casting to e2 also works! From the compiler perspective above this makes sense: the value__ field is simply filled with either 5 or 6 and when Console.WriteLine calls ToString(), the name of e1 is resolved while the name of e2 is not.

If that's not what you intended, use Enum.IsDefined(typeof(MyEnum), 6) to check if the value you are casting maps to a defined enum.

Also note that I'm explicit about the underlying type of the enum, even though the compiler actually checks this. I'm doing this to ensure I don't run into any surprises down the road. To see these surprises in action, you can use the following code (actually I've seen this happen a lot in database code):

public enum MyEnum : short
{
    Mek = 5
}

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var e1 = (MyEnum)32769; // will not compile, out of bounds for a short

    object o = 5;
    var e2 = (MyEnum)o;     // will throw at runtime, because o is of type int

    Console.WriteLine("{0} {1}", e1, e2);
    Console.ReadLine();
}

Take the following example:

int one = 1;
MyEnum e = (MyEnum)one;

I am using this piece of code to cast int to my enum:

if (typeof(YourEnum).IsEnumDefined(valueToCast))
    return (YourEnum)valueToCast;
else 
{
    // handle it here, if it is not defined
}

I find it the best solution.

Below is a nice utility class for Enums

public static class EnumHelper
{
    public static int[] ToIntArray<T>(T[] value)
    {
        int[] result = new int[value.Length];
        for (int i = 0; i < value.Length; i++)
            result[i] = Convert.ToInt32(value[i]);
        return result;
    }

    public static T[] FromIntArray<T>(int[] value) 
    {
        T[] result = new T[value.Length];
        for (int i = 0; i < value.Length; i++)
            result[i] = (T)Enum.ToObject(typeof(T),value[i]);
        return result;
    }


    internal static T Parse<T>(string value, T defaultValue)
    {
        if (Enum.IsDefined(typeof(T), value))
            return (T) Enum.Parse(typeof (T), value);

        int num;
        if(int.TryParse(value,out num))
        {
            if (Enum.IsDefined(typeof(T), num))
                return (T)Enum.ToObject(typeof(T), num);
        }

        return defaultValue;
    }
}

For numeric values, this is safer as it will return an object no matter what:

public static class EnumEx
{
    static public bool TryConvert<T>(int value, out T result)
    {
        result = default(T);
        bool success = Enum.IsDefined(typeof(T), value);
        if (success)
        {
            result = (T)Enum.ToObject(typeof(T), value);
        }
        return success;
    }
}

If you're ready for the 4.0 .NET Framework, there's a new Enum.TryParse() function that's very useful and plays well with the [Flags] attribute. See Enum.TryParse Method (String, TEnum%)

Sometimes you have an object to the MyEnum type. Like

var MyEnumType = typeof(MyEnum);

Then:

Enum.ToObject(typeof(MyEnum), 3)

If you have an integer that acts as a bitmask and could represent one or more values in a [Flags] enumeration, you can use this code to parse the individual flag values into a list:

for (var flagIterator = 0; flagIterator < 32; flagIterator++)
{
    // Determine the bit value (1,2,4,...,Int32.MinValue)
    int bitValue = 1 << flagIterator;

    // Check to see if the current flag exists in the bit mask
    if ((intValue & bitValue) != 0)
    {
        // If the current flag exists in the enumeration, then we can add that value to the list
        // if the enumeration has that flag defined
        if (Enum.IsDefined(typeof(MyEnum), bitValue))
            Console.WriteLine((MyEnum)bitValue);
    }
}

Note that this assumes that the underlying type of the enum is a signed 32-bit integer. If it were a different numerical type, you'd have to change the hardcoded 32 to reflect the bits in that type (or programatically derive it using Enum.GetUnderlyingType())

This is an flags enumeration aware safe convert method:

public static bool TryConvertToEnum<T>(this int instance, out T result)
  where T: Enum
{
  var enumType = typeof (T);
  var success = Enum.IsDefined(enumType, instance);
  if (success)
  {
    result = (T)Enum.ToObject(enumType, instance);
  }
  else
  {
    result = default(T);
  }
  return success;
}

To convert a string to ENUM or int to ENUM constant we need to use Enum.Parse function. Here is a youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nhx4VwdRDk which actually demonstrate's with string and the same applies for int.

The code goes as shown below where "red" is the string and "MyColors" is the color ENUM which has the color constants.

MyColors EnumColors = (MyColors)Enum.Parse(typeof(MyColors), "Red");

Slightly getting away from the original question, but I found an answer to Stack Overflow question Get int value from enum useful. Create a static class with public const int properties, allowing you to easily collect together a bunch of related int constants, and then not have to cast them to int when using them.

public static class Question
{
    public static readonly int Role = 2;
    public static readonly int ProjectFunding = 3;
    public static readonly int TotalEmployee = 4;
    public static readonly int NumberOfServers = 5;
    public static readonly int TopBusinessConcern = 6;
}

Obviously, some of the enum type functionality will be lost, but for storing a bunch of database id constants, it seems like a pretty tidy solution.

The following is a slightly better extension method:

public static string ToEnumString<TEnum>(this int enumValue)
{
    var enumString = enumValue.ToString();
    if (Enum.IsDefined(typeof(TEnum), enumValue))
    {
        enumString = ((TEnum) Enum.ToObject(typeof (TEnum), enumValue)).ToString();
    }
    return enumString;
}

This parses integers or strings to a target enum with partial matching in .NET 4.0 using generics like in Tawani's utility class. I am using it to convert command-line switch variables which may be incomplete. Since an enum cannot be null, you should logically provide a default value. It can be called like this:

var result = EnumParser<MyEnum>.Parse(valueToParse, MyEnum.FirstValue);

Here's the code:

using System;

public class EnumParser<T> where T : struct
{
    public static T Parse(int toParse, T defaultVal)
    {
        return Parse(toParse + "", defaultVal);
    }
    public static T Parse(string toParse, T defaultVal)
    {
        T enumVal = defaultVal;
        if (defaultVal is Enum && !String.IsNullOrEmpty(toParse))
        {
            int index;
            if (int.TryParse(toParse, out index))
            {
                Enum.TryParse(index + "", out enumVal);
            }
            else
            {
                if (!Enum.TryParse<T>(toParse + "", true, out enumVal))
                {
                    MatchPartialName(toParse, ref enumVal);
                }
            }
        }
        return enumVal;
    }

    public static void MatchPartialName(string toParse, ref T enumVal)
    {
        foreach (string member in enumVal.GetType().GetEnumNames())
        {
            if (member.ToLower().Contains(toParse.ToLower()))
            {
                if (Enum.TryParse<T>(member + "", out enumVal))
                {
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

FYI: The question was about integers, which nobody mentioned will also explicitly convert in Enum.TryParse()

From a string: (Enum.Parse is out of Date, use Enum.TryParse)

enum Importance
{}

Importance importance;

if (Enum.TryParse(value, out importance))
{
}

You should build in some type matching relaxation to be more robust.

public static T ToEnum<T>(dynamic value)
{
    if (value == null)
    {
        // default value of an enum is the object that corresponds to
        // the default value of its underlying type
        // https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/keywords/default-values-table
        value = Activator.CreateInstance(Enum.GetUnderlyingType(typeof(T)));
    }
    else if (value is string name)
    {
        return (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), name);
    }

    return (T)Enum.ToObject(typeof(T),
             Convert.ChangeType(value, Enum.GetUnderlyingType(typeof(T))));
}

Test Case

[Flags]
public enum A : uint
{
    None  = 0, 
    X     = 1 < 0,
    Y     = 1 < 1
}

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var value = EnumHelper.ToEnum<A>(7m);
    var x = value.HasFlag(A.X); // true
    var y = value.HasFlag(A.Y); // true

    var value2 = EnumHelper.ToEnum<A>("X");

    var value3 = EnumHelper.ToEnum<A>(null);

    Console.ReadKey();
}

For string, you can do the following:

var result = Enum.TryParse(typeof(MyEnum), yourString, out yourEnum) 

And make sure to check the result to determine if the conversion failed.

For int, you can do the following:

MyEnum someValue = (MyEnum)myIntValue;

The easy and clear way for casting an int to enum in C#:

public class Program
{
    public enum Color : int
    {
        Blue   = 0,
        Black  = 1,
        Green  = 2,
        Gray   = 3,
        Yellow = 4
    }

    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // From string
        Console.WriteLine((Color) Enum.Parse(typeof(Color), "Green"));

        // From int
        Console.WriteLine((Color)2);

        // From number you can also
        Console.WriteLine((Color)Enum.ToObject(typeof(Color), 2));
    }
}

Here's an extension method that casts Int32 to Enum.

It honors bitwise flags even when the value is higher than the maximum possible. For example if you have an enum with possibilities 1, 2, and 4, but the int is 9, it understands that as 1 in absence of an 8. This lets you make data updates ahead of code updates.

   public static TEnum ToEnum<TEnum>(this int val) where TEnum : struct, IComparable, IFormattable, IConvertible
    {
        if (!typeof(TEnum).IsEnum)
        {
            return default(TEnum);
        }

        if (Enum.IsDefined(typeof(TEnum), val))
        {//if a straightforward single value, return that
            return (TEnum)Enum.ToObject(typeof(TEnum), val);
        }

        var candidates = Enum
            .GetValues(typeof(TEnum))
            .Cast<int>()
            .ToList();

        var isBitwise = candidates
            .Select((n, i) => {
                if (i < 2) return n == 0 || n == 1;
                return n / 2 == candidates[i - 1];
            })
            .All(y => y);

        var maxPossible = candidates.Sum();

        if (
            Enum.TryParse(val.ToString(), out TEnum asEnum)
            && (val <= maxPossible || !isBitwise)
        ){//if it can be parsed as a bitwise enum with multiple flags,
          //or is not bitwise, return the result of TryParse
            return asEnum;
        }

        //If the value is higher than all possible combinations,
        //remove the high imaginary values not accounted for in the enum
        var excess = Enumerable
            .Range(0, 32)
            .Select(n => (int)Math.Pow(2, n))
            .Where(n => n <= val && n > 0 && !candidates.Contains(n))
            .Sum();

        return Enum.TryParse((val - excess).ToString(), out asEnum) ? asEnum : default(TEnum);
    }

In my case, I needed to return the enum from a WCF service. I also needed a friendly name, not just the enum.ToString().

Here's my WCF Class.

[DataContract]
public class EnumMember
{
    [DataMember]
    public string Description { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public int Value { get; set; }

    public static List<EnumMember> ConvertToList<T>()
    {
        Type type = typeof(T);

        if (!type.IsEnum)
        {
            throw new ArgumentException("T must be of type enumeration.");
        }

        var members = new List<EnumMember>();

        foreach (string item in System.Enum.GetNames(type))
        {
            var enumType = System.Enum.Parse(type, item);

            members.Add(
                new EnumMember() { Description = enumType.GetDescriptionValue(), Value = ((IConvertible)enumType).ToInt32(null) });
        }

        return members;
    }
}

Here's the Extension method that gets the Description from the Enum.

    public static string GetDescriptionValue<T>(this T source)
    {
        FieldInfo fileInfo = source.GetType().GetField(source.ToString());
        DescriptionAttribute[] attributes = (DescriptionAttribute[])fileInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);            

        if (attributes != null && attributes.Length > 0)
        {
            return attributes[0].Description;
        }
        else
        {
            return source.ToString();
        }
    }

Implementation:

return EnumMember.ConvertToList<YourType>();

It can help you to convert any input data to user desired enum. Suppose you have an enum like below which by default int. Please add a Default value at first of your enum. Which is used at helpers medthod when there is no match found with input value.

public enum FriendType  
{
    Default,
    Audio,
    Video,
    Image
}

public static class EnumHelper<T>
{
    public static T ConvertToEnum(dynamic value)
    {
        var result = default(T);
        var tempType = 0;

        //see Note below
        if (value != null &&
            int.TryParse(value.ToString(), out  tempType) && 
            Enum.IsDefined(typeof(T), tempType))
        {
            result = (T)Enum.ToObject(typeof(T), tempType); 
        }
        return result;
    }
}

N.B: Here I try to parse value into int, because enum is by default int If you define enum like this which is byte type.

public enum MediaType : byte
{
    Default,
    Audio,
    Video,
    Image
} 

You need to change parsing at helper method from

int.TryParse(value.ToString(), out  tempType)

to

byte.TryParse(value.ToString(), out tempType)

I check my method for following inputs

EnumHelper<FriendType>.ConvertToEnum(null);
EnumHelper<FriendType>.ConvertToEnum("");
EnumHelper<FriendType>.ConvertToEnum("-1");
EnumHelper<FriendType>.ConvertToEnum("6");
EnumHelper<FriendType>.ConvertToEnum("");
EnumHelper<FriendType>.ConvertToEnum("2");
EnumHelper<FriendType>.ConvertToEnum(-1);
EnumHelper<FriendType>.ConvertToEnum(0);
EnumHelper<FriendType>.ConvertToEnum(1);
EnumHelper<FriendType>.ConvertToEnum(9);

sorry for my english

I prefer a short way using a nullable enum type variable.

var enumValue = (MyEnum?)enumInt;

if (!enumValue.HasValue)
{
    throw new ArgumentException(nameof(enumValue));
}

Different ways to cast to and from Enum

enum orientation : byte
{
 north = 1,
 south = 2,
 east = 3,
 west = 4
}

class Program
{
  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
    orientation myDirection = orientation.north;
    Console.WriteLine(“myDirection = {0}”, myDirection); //output myDirection =north
    Console.WriteLine((byte)myDirection); //output 1

    string strDir = Convert.ToString(myDirection);
        Console.WriteLine(strDir); //output north

    string myString = “north”; //to convert string to Enum
    myDirection = (orientation)Enum.Parse(typeof(orientation),myString);


 }
}

I don't know anymore where I get the part of this enum extension, but it is from stackoverflow. I am sorry for this! But I took this one and modified it for enums with Flags. For enums with Flags I did this:

  public static class Enum<T> where T : struct
  {
     private static readonly IEnumerable<T> All = Enum.GetValues(typeof (T)).Cast<T>();
     private static readonly Dictionary<int, T> Values = All.ToDictionary(k => Convert.ToInt32(k));

     public static T? CastOrNull(int value)
     {
        T foundValue;
        if (Values.TryGetValue(value, out foundValue))
        {
           return foundValue;
        }

        // For enums with Flags-Attribut.
        try
        {
           bool isFlag = typeof(T).GetCustomAttributes(typeof(FlagsAttribute), false).Length > 0;
           if (isFlag)
           {
              int existingIntValue = 0;

              foreach (T t in Enum.GetValues(typeof(T)))
              {
                 if ((value & Convert.ToInt32(t)) > 0)
                 {
                    existingIntValue |= Convert.ToInt32(t);
                 }
              }
              if (existingIntValue == 0)
              {
                 return null;
              }

              return (T)(Enum.Parse(typeof(T), existingIntValue.ToString(), true));
           }
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
           return null;
        }
        return null;
     }
  }

Example:

[Flags]
public enum PetType
{
  None = 0, Dog = 1, Cat = 2, Fish = 4, Bird = 8, Reptile = 16, Other = 32
};

integer values 
1=Dog;
13= Dog | Fish | Bird;
96= Other;
128= Null;

You simply use Explicit conversion Cast int to enum or enum to int

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine((int)Number.three); //Output=3

        Console.WriteLine((Number)3);// Outout three
        Console.Read();
    }

    public enum Number
    {
        Zero = 0,
        One = 1,
        Two = 2,
        three = 3
    }
}

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace SamplePrograme
{
    public class Program
    {
        public enum Suit : int
        {
            Spades = 0,
            Hearts = 1,
            Clubs = 2,
            Diamonds = 3
        }

        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //from string
            Console.WriteLine((Suit) Enum.Parse(typeof(Suit), "Clubs"));

            //from int
            Console.WriteLine((Suit)1);

            //From number you can also
            Console.WriteLine((Suit)Enum.ToObject(typeof(Suit) ,1));
        }
    }
}

You just do like below:

int intToCast = 1;
TargetEnum f = (TargetEnum) intToCast ;

To make sure that you only cast the right values ​​and that you can throw an exception otherwise:

int intToCast = 1;
if (Enum.IsDefined(typeof(TargetEnum), intToCast ))
{
    TargetEnum target = (TargetEnum)intToCast ;
}
else
{
   // Throw your exception.
}

Note that using IsDefined is costly and even more than just casting, so it depends on your implementation to decide to use it or not.

You can use an extension method.

public static class Extensions
{

    public static T ToEnum<T>(this string data) where T : struct
    {
        if (!Enum.TryParse(data, true, out T enumVariable))
        {
            if (Enum.IsDefined(typeof(T), enumVariable))
            {
                return enumVariable;
            }
        }

        return default;
    }

    public static T ToEnum<T>(this int data) where T : struct
    {
        return (T)Enum.ToObject(typeof(T), data);
    }
}

Use it like the below code:

Enum:

public enum DaysOfWeeks
{
    Monday = 1,
    Tuesday = 2,
    Wednesday = 3,
    Thursday = 4,
    Friday = 5,
    Saturday = 6,
    Sunday = 7,
}

Usage:

 string Monday = "Mon";
 int Wednesday = 3;
 var Mon = Monday.ToEnum<DaysOfWeeks>();
 var Wed = Wednesday.ToEnum<DaysOfWeeks>();