Question

I have an attribute in my car class called VehicleType.

Using an enum, I could list the different types of cars that exist and not allow any other type to be hard written in.

Problem is, if I have to GET the attribute from somewhere else, I will GET a numberical value, and not the string literal I saved.

What should I use here?

class Hero
{
    public string faction;
    public string name;
    public string herotype;

    enum HeroType
    {
        Agility,
        Strength,
        Intelligence,
    }
}

Answer 1

You could create an abstract base class

public abstract class BaseHero
{
    public string faction;
    public string name;
    ...... more properties
} 

and then derive your heroes from that:

public class AgilityHero : BaseHero
{
} 

public class StrengthHero : BaseHero
{
} 

public class IntelligenceHero : BaseHero
{
} 

Common stuff would be handled and coded in the base class, those things specific to a hero type in the actual hero class.

Using this OO approach, you can save yourself from having to write, code, maintain a lot of if....then.....else or switch statements in your Hero class – the differences are handled by the fact of having different types for each type of hero.