Get enum value as string

You should rethink your design, but if you want to check your enum integers to a given string, you can use .ToString("0000") to get the string "0101" out of the integer 101.

First, enums are integers, since as their name says, they are enumerations and an enumeration, they are numbers, so enum is integer.

Secondly, you must bear in mind that zero is a null value, since the system is a 01 or 001 like 1, since (basic mathematics) a zero to the left is worthless, so this code is incorrect.

enum myEnum { a=0101, b=2002, c=0303, } 

The correct way is

enum myEnum { a = 0, b = 1, c = 2 } 

Where the zero is alone, so the system sees it as an index

Now with this, you should only use one of the conversion processes of C#

string strOne = ((myEnum)0).ToString(); string strTwo = ((myEnum)1).ToString(); string strThree = ((myEnum)2).ToString(); 

Read the MSDN reference https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/16c1xs4z(v=vs.110).aspx

Enumeration values are always integers. If you need to associate a string with an enumeration value, you can use a dictionary:

enum myEnum { a, b, c } Dictionary<myEnum, string> lookup = new Dictionary { { a, "0101" }, { b, "2002" }, { c, "0303" } }; 

To get the string associated with a particular value just use this:

var s = lookup[myEnum.a]; // s = 0101 

Another common way to handle this sort of problem is simply to use constants.

class MyConstants { public const string a = "0101"; public const string b = "2002"; public const string c = "0303"; } var s = MyConstants.a; // s = 0101 

Try using formatting: you want 4 digits and that's why you can put d4 format string. In order to hide all these implmentation details (cast and formatting) let's write an extension method:

 enum myEnum { a = 0101, b = 2002, c = 0303 } static class myEnumExtensions { public static string ToReport(this myEnum value) { return ((int)value).ToString("d4"); // 4 digits, i.e. "101" -> "0101" } } ... myEnum test = myEnum.a; Console.Write(test.ToReport()); 

If you always need a specific number of digits you could use string format to get the leading zeros:

var str = String.Format("{0:0000}", (int)myEnum.a); 

Or, shorter:

var str = $"{(int) myEnum.a:D4}"; 

Alternative:

Use an attribute to add extra information to an enum

Attribute:

public class DescriptionAttribute : Attribute { public string Name { get; } public DescriptionAttribute(string name) { Name = name; } } 

Enum:

enum myEnum { [Description("0101")] a = 101, [Description("2002")] b = 2002, [Description("303")] c = 303 } 

Extension Method:

public static string GetDescription(this myEnum e) { var fieldInfo = e.GetType().GetField(e.ToString()); var attribute = fieldInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false).FirstOrDefault() as DescriptionAttribute; return attribute.Name; } 

Usage:

var name = myEnum.a.GetDescription() //will return '0101' 

Assuming that the numbers in your enum always have a length of 4 you can use the following

var val = (int)myEnum.a).ToString().PadLeft(4, '0')