Search for a string in Enum and return the Enum

Question

check out System.Enum.Parse:

enum Colors {Red, Green, Blue}

// your code:
Colors color = (Colors)System.Enum.Parse(typeof(Colors), "Green");

You can cast the int to an enum

(MyColour)2

There is also the option of Enum.Parse

(MyColour)Enum.Parse(typeof(MyColour), "Red")

Given the latest and greatest changes to .NET (+ Core) and C# 7, here is the best solution:

var ignoreCase = true;
Enum.TryParse("red", ignoreCase , out MyColours colour);

colour variable can be used within the scope of Enum.TryParse

All you need is Enum.Parse.

I marked OregonGhost's answer +1, then I tried to use the iteration and realised it wasn't quite right because Enum.GetNames returns strings. You want Enum.GetValues:

public MyColours GetColours(string colour)
{  
   foreach (MyColours mc in Enum.GetValues(typeof(MyColours))) 
   if (mc.ToString() == surveySystem) 
      return mc;

   return MyColors.Default;
}

var color =  Enum.Parse<Colors>("Green");

You can use Enum.Parse to get an enum value from the name. You can iterate over all values with Enum.GetNames, and you can just cast an int to an enum to get the enum value from the int value.

Like this, for example:

public MyColours GetColours(string colour)
{
    foreach (MyColours mc in Enum.GetNames(typeof(MyColours))) {
        if (mc.ToString().Contains(colour)) {
            return mc;
        }
    }
    return MyColours.Red; // Default value
}

or:

public MyColours GetColours(string colour)
{
    return (MyColours)Enum.Parse(typeof(MyColours), colour, true); // true = ignoreCase
}

The latter will throw an ArgumentException if the value is not found, you may want to catch it inside the function and return the default value.