Get the enum value out from protobuf messages

With proto3, from enum value to string, you can directly use:

name.String()

The Go protobuf generator emits a map of enum names to values (and vice versa). You can use this map to translate your string to enum value:

str := "Cathy"

value, ok := People_PeopleName_value[str]
if !ok {
    panic("invalid enum value")
}

var people People
people.Name = People_PeopleName(value).Enum()