Setting enum flags by string (in any order) I want to set flags which are given in string representation in any order. And it is intimidating, because you have to check like 2^3 possible options in my occassion. I was just wondering is there any better way to do that than just simple brute-force. Any optimization and readability improvment would be great. This is my code:

[Flags]
public enum salaryFeatures
{
Children = 1,
Graduate = 2,
Disability = 4
}

class Program
{

public static void Main()
{
    string Employee = "10023 Mark Male 6.7 70 30 20 Children Graduate";
    salaryFeatures f;
    f = GetFeaturesByString(Employee);
}

public static salaryFeatures GetFeaturesByString(string fields)
{
    bool children = false;
    bool graduate = false;
    bool disability = false;
    salaryFeatures features = new salaryFeatures();

    if (fields.ToLower().Contains("children")) children = true;
    if (fields.ToLower().Contains("graduate")) graduate = true;
    if (fields.ToLower().Contains("disability")) disability = true;

    if (children &amp;&amp; graduate &amp;&amp; disability)
    {
        return features = salaryFeatures.Children | salaryFeatures.Disability | salaryFeatures.Graduate;
    }
    if (children &amp;&amp; graduate)
    {
        return features = salaryFeatures.Children | salaryFeatures.Graduate;
    }
    if (children &amp;&amp; disability)
    {
        return features = salaryFeatures.Children | salaryFeatures.Disability;
    }
    if (children)
    {
        return features = salaryFeatures.Children;
    }
    if (graduate &amp;&amp; disability)
    {
        return features = salaryFeatures.Graduate | salaryFeatures.Disability;
    }
    if (graduate)
    {
        return features = salaryFeatures.Graduate;
    }
    if (disability)
    {
        return features = salaryFeatures.Disability;
    }
    return features;
}
}
Here is my take on your code

[Flags]
public enum SalaryFeatures
{
  None= 0,
  Children = 1,
  Graduate = 2,
  Disability = 4
}

class Program
{

  public static void Main()
  {
    string Employee = "10023 Mark Male 6.7 70 30 20 Children Graduate";
    SalaryFeatures f;
    f = GetFeaturesByString(Employee);
    // f.Dump(); //LinqPad only
  }

  public static SalaryFeatures GetFeaturesByString(string fields)
  {
    SalaryFeatures features = SalaryFeatures.None;

    if (fields.IndexOf("children", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &gt;= 0) features |= SalaryFeatures.Children;
    if (fields.IndexOf("graduate", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &gt;= 0) features |= SalaryFeatures.Graduate;
    if (fields.IndexOf("disability", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &gt;= 0) features |= SalaryFeatures.Disability;

    return features;
  }
}


First of the definition of your Enumeration is not complete. You need to define a None value for it


  Use None as the name of the flag enumerated constant whose value is
  zero. You cannot use the None enumerated constant in a bitwise AND
  operation to test for a flag because the result is always zero.
  However, you can perform a logical, not a bitwise, comparison between
  the numeric value and the None enumerated constant to determine
  whether any bits in the numeric value are set.


See also the Guidelines when defining a Flags enum. I also change the naming of the enum to PascalCase (SalaryFeatures).

After that I have improved your method GetFeaturesByString to use bitwise OR to combine the values depending on the values that are found in your string. I also use the method IndexOf(string, StringComparison) to check if the search string exists in the source string, instead of using ToLower() and Contains().