Enum.Parse

When you parse an enum in .NET, if you pass in a value which isn’t in the enum, you’ll still get an enum value out again.

This piece of code will write out ‘3’.

 
enum Example
{
	Value0 = 0,
	Value1 = 1
}

public static void RunSnippet()
{
	Console.WriteLine( Enum.Parse(typeof(Example), "3") );
}


However, there is another method 'IsDefined' which will tell you if the value held by the enum is a valid value. So this method will parse your enum, and will return the default if the value isn't valid:

private static T ParseEnum(string value)
{
	T t = (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), value);
	if (Enum.IsDefined(typeof(T), t))
	{
		return t;
	}
	return default(T);
}