Create an enum with string values

TypeScript 2.4

Now has string enums so your code just works:

enum E {
    hello = "hello",
    world = "world"
};

🌹

TypeScript 1.8

Since TypeScript 1.8 you can use string literal types to provide a reliable and safe experience for named string values (which is partially what enums are used for).

type Options = "hello" | "world";
var foo: Options;
foo = "hello"; // Okay 
foo = "asdf"; // Error!

More : https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/advanced-types.html#string-literal-types

Legacy Support

Enums in TypeScript are number based.

You can use a class with static members though:

class E
{
    static hello = "hello";
    static world = "world"; 
}

You could go plain as well:

var E = {
    hello: "hello",
    world: "world"
}

Update: Based on the requirement to be able to do something like var test:E = E.hello; the following satisfies this:

class E
{
    // boilerplate 
    constructor(public value:string){    
    }

    toString(){
        return this.value;
    }

    // values 
    static hello = new E("hello");
    static world = new E("world");
}

// Sample usage: 
var first:E = E.hello;
var second:E = E.world;
var third:E = E.hello;

console.log("First value is: "+ first);
console.log(first===third); 

In latest version (1.0RC) of TypeScript, you can use enums like this:

enum States {
    New,
    Active,
    Disabled
} 

// this will show message '0' which is number representation of enum member
alert(States.Active); 

// this will show message 'Disabled' as string representation of enum member
alert(States[States.Disabled]);

Update 1

To get number value of enum member from string value, you can use this:

var str = "Active";
// this will show message '1'
alert(States[str]);

Update 2

In latest TypeScript 2.4, there was introduced string enums, like this:

enum ActionType {
    AddUser = "ADD_USER",
    DeleteUser = "DELETE_USER",
    RenameUser = "RENAME_USER",

    // Aliases
    RemoveUser = DeleteUser,
}

For more info about TypeScript 2.4, read blog on MSDN.