Search for a string in Enum and return the Enum

Question

I have an enumeration:

public enum MyColours
{
    Red,
    Green,
    Blue,
    Yellow,
    Fuchsia,
    Aqua,
    Orange
}

and I have a string:

string colour = "Red";

I want to be able to return:

MyColours.Red

from:

public MyColours GetColour(string colour)

---

So far i have:

public MyColours GetColours(string colour)
{
    string[] colours = Enum.GetNames(typeof(MyColours));
    int[]    values  = Enum.GetValues(typeof(MyColours));
    int i;
    for(int i = 0; i < colours.Length; i++)
    {
        if(colour.Equals(colours[i], StringComparison.Ordinal)
            break;
    }
    int value = values[i];
    // I know all the information about the matched enumeration
    // but how do i convert this information into returning a
    // MyColour enumeration?
}

As you can see, I'm a bit stuck. Is there anyway to select an enumerator by value. Something like:

MyColour(2) 

would result in

MyColour.Green

Answer 1

check out System.Enum.Parse:

enum Colors {Red, Green, Blue}

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