C# LINQ to XML: "Safe" enum value from an XElement?

Question

To get a "safe" integer value from an XElement in C# one can use a method like

    public int GetIntegerValue(XElement x, string tag)
    {
        int result  = Int32.MinValue;
        if (x.Element(tag) != null)
        {
            Int32.TryParse(x.Element(tag).Value, out result);
        }
        return result;
    }

The code returns the correct integer value if the element is present and contains a parseable string, otherwise Int32.MinValue. This approach would function with a few other common types like double, bool, etc., but what about enum?

Can there also be a function like GetEnumValue(XElement x, string tag, Type enumType) or GetEnumValue(XElement x, string tag, TEnum defaultValue) or alike?

Answer 1

You can try following method:

public static TEnum GetEnumValue<TEnum>(XElement x, string tag)
    where TEnum : struct
{
    // Set default value
    TEnum parsedEnum = default(TEnum);

    var element = x.Element(tag);
    if(element != null)
    {
        // Try to parse
        Enum.TryParse<TEnum>(element.Value, out parsedEnum);
    }

    return parsedEnum;
}

And then call it like:

CarType carType = GetEnumValue<CarType>(xElement, tag);