Enum parsing from strings in C Sharp (C#) - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Enum parsing from strings

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple program that reads color names as text and converts them into color codes using an enum.

🎯 Goal: Create an enum called Color with specific colors, then write code to convert a string into the matching Color enum value.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an enum named Color with values Red, Green, and Blue

Create a string variable named inputColor with the value "Green"

Parse the string inputColor into a Color enum variable named parsedColor

Print the parsedColor variable to the console

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Enums are used to represent fixed sets of related values, like days of the week, colors, or states. Parsing strings to enums helps convert user input or data into these fixed categories.

💼 Career

Understanding enums and parsing is important for building clear, maintainable code in many C# applications, including games, business software, and web services.

1

Create the Color enum

Create an enum called Color with the values Red, Green, and Blue.

C Sharp (C#)

// Your code here

Need a hint?

An enum is a special type that holds named constants. Use the enum keyword.

2

Create the input string

Create a string variable called inputColor and set it to the value "Green".

C Sharp (C#)

enum Color
{
    Red,
    Green,
    Blue
}

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use string inputColor = "Green"; to create the variable.

3

Parse the string to the Color enum

Parse the string inputColor into a Color enum variable called parsedColor using Enum.Parse.

C Sharp (C#)

enum Color
{
    Red,
    Green,
    Blue
}

string inputColor = "Green";

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Enum.Parse(typeof(Color), inputColor) and cast it to Color.

4

Print the parsed enum value

Print the parsedColor variable to the console using Console.WriteLine.

C Sharp (C#)

enum Color
{
    Red,
    Green,
    Blue
}

string inputColor = "Green";

Color parsedColor = (Color)Enum.Parse(typeof(Color), inputColor);

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Console.WriteLine(parsedColor); to show the result.