Convert an enum to List<string>

c# .net enums generic-list
Jeremy Thompson picture Jeremy Thompson · Feb 20, 2013 · Viewed 101.6k times · Source

How do I convert the following Enum to a List of strings?

[Flags]
public enum DataSourceTypes
{
    None = 0,
    Grid = 1,
    ExcelFile = 2,
    ODBC = 4
};

I couldn't find this exact question, this Enum to List is the closest but I specifically want List<string>

Answer

Jeremy Thompson picture Jeremy Thompson · Feb 20, 2013

Use Enum's static method, GetNames. It returns a string[], like so:

Enum.GetNames(typeof(DataSourceTypes))

If you want to create a method that does only this for only one type of enum, and also converts that array to a List, you can write something like this:

public List<string> GetDataSourceTypes()
{
    return Enum.GetNames(typeof(DataSourceTypes)).ToList();
}

You will need Using System.Linq; at the top of your class to use .ToList()

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