Question

I need to convert a List of enums values to a single string to store in my db; then convert back again when I retrieve from the database.

Each enum’s value is currently a simple integer, so it feels a bit overkill to create an extra table to deal with this.

So, in the example below, if the user selects Mother, Father and Sister, then the value stored in the database will be “0,1,3”

  public enum MyEnum
    {
        Mother = 0,
        Father = 1,
        Gran = 2,
        Sister = 3,
        Brother = 4
    }

I’m new to c#, so not sure if there is a nice out-the-box way to do this – I couldn’t find anything obvious when google hunting!

Cheers in advance 🙂
– L

Answer 1

The following will convert back and forth between an array of Enum values via “0,1,3” as requested:

MyEnum[] selection = { MyEnum.Mother, MyEnum.Father, MyEnum.Sister };

string str = string.Join(",", selection.Cast<int>());

MyEnum[] enm = str.Split(',').Select(s => int.Parse(s)).Cast<MyEnum>().ToArray();