Parse a string to an Enum value in VB.NET

Question

How can I parse a string in VB.NET to enum value?

Example I have this enum:

Public Enum Gender
    NotDefined
    Male
    Female
End Enum
         


        

Answer 1

how can I convert a string "Male" to the Gender enum's Male value?

The accepted solution returns an Enum object. To return the value you want this solution:

dim MyGender as string = "Male"
dim Value as integer
Value = DirectCast([Enum].Parse(GetType(Gender), MyGender), Integer)

Can also do it this way:

value = cInt([enum].Parse(GetType(Gender), MyGender))