A better way to parse enums

bradfoje

We all know and love the methods that the .net framework provides for working with enumerations... things like Enum.Parse(), etc etc. While traversing through some of our production code I stumbled across this gem. Its parsing methods far surpass anything that the Enum.Parse() could ever dream of. Knowing the previous developer has a knack for the desire to write his own snippets of code (aka: reinventing the wheel) this came as no surprise:

private string Guess(string str)

{

switch (char.ToUpper(str[0]))

{

case 'B':

return MyEnum.Between.ToString();

case 'O':

return MyEnum.Outside.ToString();

case 'E':

return MyEnum.Equal.ToString();

case 'L':

return MyEnum.LessThan.ToString();

case 'G':

return MyEnum.GreaterThan.ToString();

default:

return null;

}

foobish

It appears to do a little more than just parse an Enum, as its return value is a string. However, what is an expected input to this function? And a lovely name for the function by the way.

bradfoje

The funny thing about it... it is parsing a field from a file and then passing that entry into the Guess method...

so its taking a string.... comparing that to the first character and if it matches then it returns the enumeration value ToString()... the WTF is that we are limited to a certain number of enumeration values.

So we can't use Between and Both or Boseefus as it will always guess that since it starts with 'B' then it MUST be Between.

rbowes

@bradfoje said:

We all know and love the methods that the .net framework provides for working with enumerations

I assure you I don't :(

CodeWhisperer

@rbowes said:

@bradfoje said:
We all know and love the methods that the .net framework provides for working with enumerations

I assure you I don't :(

When I was doing a lot of interviewing, we had people fill out a 'self assessment' and rate themselves in several areas. These rankings even had rough descriptions. 1 = "I've heard of it and read a bit but I haven't used it on a project yet". 3 = "I've worked with this for a while and am comfortable in it". 5 = "I am a world-class expert and could write books on the topic". When I conducted the interview, I came in with questions keyed to those levels.

It's was WTFy enough that about 60% of respondants rated themselves as being a 5 in .NET (and several other technologies) after 3 years experience. But not a single one of them knew Enum.Parse(). Not one. So you're not alone :)

Generally speaking, they also didn't know what .Dispose() was for...and god help you if you asked them what the relationship between the CLR & a Windows process was.

(I also got a contractor sent to me with several years experience who, when I asked him to write me a function to clean up a phone number, looked at it for a few seconds and said "Pass"...sigh)

It was a long couple months.

Now I'm depressed.

-cw

ammoQ

@CodeWhisperer said:

When I was doing a lot of interviewing, ...
It was a long couple months.

Now I'm depressed.

-cw

Hmm... now you sound like CPound. I start to believe that the four of us are really only one person with a split personality!

CodeWhisperer

No, if I was CPound, I'd have complained that they wore tennis shoes and needed haircuts. I actually care about what candidates know :)

Ooo...though I guess it's possible that I'm the personality that cares about such things.

-cw

rbowes

@CodeWhisperer said:

When I was doing a lot of interviewing, we had people fill out a 'self assessment' and rate themselves in several areas. These rankings even had rough descriptions. 1 = "I've heard of it and read a bit but I haven't used it on a project yet". 3 = "I've worked with this for a while and am comfortable in it". 5 = "I am a world-class expert and could write books on the topic". When I conducted the interview, I came in with questions keyed to those levels.

It's was WTFy enough that about 60% of respondants rated themselves as being a 5 in .NET (and several other technologies) after 3 years experience. But not a single one of them knew Enum.Parse(). Not one. So you're not alone :)

Well, that makes me feel better. I would rate myself as a "1" or "2" on .net -- I've heard about it, and I know a few key concepts (or can guess based on my Java skills). And I can take a pretty good guess on what Enum.parse() and .Dispose() do. But the original poster made it sound like something totally obvious that all of us know, but I am reasonably sure that those of us who have never done .net wouldn't. :)