Read/Write Enum to/from XML

c#, enums, xml, xmlreader, xmlwriter

Solution

I would suggest using `Enum.TryParse`

var enumStr = reader.ReadString();
TitleID id;
if (!Enum.TryParse<TitleID>(enumStr, out id)
{
    // whatever you need to do when the XML isn't in the expected format
    //  such as throwing an exception or setting the ID to a default value
}

Problem

I'm writing an enum value with an XmlWriter, and it look something like this in the xml: ``` <Tile>Plain</Tile> writer.WriteValue(tile.ID.ToString()); // ID's type is the enum ``` Plain being one of the enum values. Now when I try to read this, though it won't work. ``` (TileID)reader.ReadElementContentAs(typeof(TileID), null); ``` I do this when my reader.Name == "Tile", which should work, though it apparently can't convert the string to my enum. Is there any way to either fix the writing, so I don't have to do the .ToString() (since if I don't I get an error: "TileID cannot be cast to string".) or fix the reading? Thanks.

Original source