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Daniel Ballinger

Apex Enum parse from string

Development (Apex, LWC & VF)

Currently in Apex converting from a string to an Enum item requires iterating all the values and comparing the .name() with the string.

E.g.

String soapTypeToMatch = 'Time';
Schema.SoapType soapTypeMatch = Schema.SoapType.anyType;
for (Schema.SoapType st : Schema.SoapType.values()) {
    if (st.name() == soapTypeToMatch) {
        soapTypeMatch = st;
        break;
    }
}

Add a system method for converting from a string to the matching Enum item/value.

E.g.

Schema.SoapType st = Schema.SoapType.parse('Time');

.NET has a generic method to handle such conversions.

DayOfWeek wednesday = 
      (DayOfWeek)Enum.Parse(typeof(DayOfWeek), "Wednesday");

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Comments ( 11 )

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Deborah Orth - 15 days ago

Apex really should support this
- Flag
Flaviano Toledo - 10 months ago
DayOfWeek.valueOf('Wednesday')

this line even compiles, but there is an error when running FATAL_ERROR Internal Salesforce.com Error
Sorry
- Flag
Flaviano Toledo - 10 months ago
DayOfWeek.valueOf('Wednesday')
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Noel Light-Hilary - 1 year ago

I've just been directed here from a help Case. While it's good that we can at least use the values() workaround Daniel details, it's super disappointing that Apex consistently internal-errors with valueOf() on Enums, yet considers that valid at compile time. Allowing code to save and then 500'ing has been particularly unhelpful here, even compared to not supporting enum casts at all.

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Nic Edwards - 1 year ago

The most successful CRM with the most archaic proprietary languages... constant pain..
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Pranay Jaiswal - 2 years ago

2019 and not having this makes Apex fall behind. Must need.
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Alexey Lobanov - 2 years ago

Well... it's 2018 now, where is modern day enum? Then why anyone can write something like MyEnumType.valueof('MyStringValue') and save it without any compilation error (but with "server error 500" when it runs)?

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Nathan Hinchey - 3 years ago

This might be particularly handy for @AuraEnabled methods that want to be able to take a String from a Lightning component, but use it as an Enum internally.
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Paul Pervinkler - 4 years ago

Without even thinking about it, I wrote MyEnumType.valueOf(enumTypeStr) expecting that functionality to be there as it is with integer, decimal, date, etc.. If enum parsing functionality ever gets added, I would expect it to be in the form of a valueOf method.

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Vance Kessler - 4 years ago

Once again, the lack of fundamental things like this make programming in APEX quite frustrating at times.
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Daniel Ballinger - 5 years ago

Based off the StackOverflow question - How can I parse a String and return an Enum value in Apex Code?
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