CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#enums
J Benjamin
J Benjamin

Reputation: 4782

Enum: need to get the name of the enum, not its int value, as a string

I have an enum with a whole bunch of values (only three shown here):

public enum LookupType
{
   Alignment,
   Language,
   ReEmbedBehavior
}

I then have a method that gets data based on a varchar field called LookupType...what I want is to limit callers of this method to only the lookuptypes that are in the database...so at the end of my WHERE clause, I want the enum name as a string, not the integer value of it.

Callers would then do something like GetLookupsByLookupType(LookupType.Language) and my method would make the call as "where lookuptype = 'Language'"

public List<Lookup> GetLookupsByLookupType(UnicornMedia.Core.DomainModel.Enumerations.LookupType lookupType)
        {
            var lookups = new List<Lookup>();
            string SQL = String.Format(@"Select id, name, value, lookuptype
                                         from lookups
                                         where lookuptype = '{0}'", lookupType.ToString());

            ...<snip>...                                         
        }

It's probably something simple but I seem to bump into this from time to time and instead of figuring it out, I end up just using a Dictionary...anyway, there it is, thanks

Upvotes: 3

Views: 531

Answers (6)

IAbstract
IAbstract

Reputation: 19881

Your code should work just fine. I ran the following and the string returned the expected results.

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        LookupType lookupType = LookupType.Language;

        Console.WriteLine(GetLookupsByLookupType(lookupType));

        Console.Read();
    }

    public static string GetLookupsByLookupType(LookupType lookupType)
    {
        string SQL = String.Format(@"Select id, name, value, lookuptype from lookups where lookuptype = '{0}'", lookupType.ToString());

        return SQL;                  
    }

}

public enum LookupType
{
    Alignment,
    Language,
    ReEmbedBehavior
}

Make sure you are not passing your SQL string as you have it displayed above. Either put the string together on one line, or use the following:

        string SQL = String.Format(@"Select id, name, value, lookuptype from " + 
            "lookups where lookuptype = '{0}'", lookupType.ToString());

Upvotes: 1

Patrick
Patrick

Reputation: 17973

Have you tried Enum.GetName?

Actually, the following snippet shows that simply calling ToString works as well.

enum LookupType {
    Language
}
public class Program {
    public static void Main(string[] args) {
        string str = string.Format("{0}", LookupType.Language);
        // str = "Language"
        Console.WriteLine(LookupType.Language);
        // output: Language
    }
}

Upvotes: 2

Aaron McIver
Aaron McIver

Reputation: 24713

You do not need GetName...

LookupType.Alignment.ToString();

or

just as you have it in your code...

lookupType.ToString()

Upvotes: 1

Evan Mulawski
Evan Mulawski

Reputation: 55334

You can use the GetName method (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.enum.getname.aspx):

Enum.GetName(typeof(LookupType), lookupType);

Upvotes: 1

F.B. ten Kate
F.B. ten Kate

Reputation: 2032

Simply doing a .ToString() will get you the enum name as a string value.

Upvotes: 8

JaredPar
JaredPar

Reputation: 754715

Try the following

string name = System.Enum.GetName(typeof(LookupType), LookupType.Language);

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions