EnumParser

Today I saw an enum parser generator, and I even posted that a single generic class could do the job. But, as that message was lost, I decided to post this trick.

It is a very simple class to Parse enums. It has the advantage that the Parse is already typed to the right enum type and also that it is faster than the normal Enum.Parse.

The entire code is here:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public static class EnumParser<T>
{
  private static readonly Dictionary<string, T> _dictionary = new Dictionary<string, T>();

  static EnumParser()
  {
    if (!typeof(T).IsEnum)
      throw new NotSupportedException("Type " + typeof(T).FullName + " is not an enum.");

    string[] names = Enum.GetNames(typeof(T));
    T[] values = (T[])Enum.GetValues(typeof(T));

    int count = names.Length;
    for(int i=0; i<count; i++)
      _dictionary.Add(names[i], values[i]);
  }

  public static bool TryParse(string name, out T value)
  {
    return _dictionary.TryGetValue(name, out value);
  }

  public static T Parse(string name)
  {
    return _dictionary[name];
  }
}

And to use it, you only need to call:

EnumParser<YourEnumType>.Parse("EnumValue");

Notes: It does not have locks but it is thread safe, as after the creation the dictionary is only read (and it supports multiple readers). It does not support enum [Flags] (ok, a single value is supported, but values separated by comma aren't). It also does not support the ignoreCase mode. It is always case sensitive.