String enums in typescript

I would like to have a set of string enums in typescript so I can do things like having the user select from a set of predefined options.

I found a good solution in this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17380845/how-to-convert-string-to-enum-in-typescript

However, that only works for single words... (basically, the above allows you to get the enum name value -- and that can't have a space in it).

So, further looking, I found this person with a workaround: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37839347/workaround-for-string-based-enums-in-typescript

That will allow something like this to work:

export enum EventType {
    Photoshoot = <any>"Photoshoot",
	BookingMeeting = <any>"Booking Meeting",
	PostShootMeeting = <any>"Post Shoot Meeting",
	Purchase = <any>"Purchase",
	Print = <any>"Print"
}

The only response basically says doing so is unsafe. (but I should say, it DOES work -- I can type EventType.dot ... and Atom editor gives me the 5 camel-case options to select from (keeping things consistent in the code) I can then use that to have the string value spit out to give my users a good space-filled experience, in the future I can change the enum and for different languages/option wording without messing with the 'code' at all, etc...

Is there a better way to do this? I'd rather not do it 'unsafely' -- but I don't know of any other way.

Update for TS 2.4 - 2017+

String Enums are available starting in TypeScript 2.4 using the following syntax:

enum Color {
    Red = "red",
    Green = "green",
    Blue = "blue"
}

Demo in TS Playground

Further Reading

• Create an enum with string values
• Typescript String Based Enums
• String Enums in TypeScript
• TypeScript string enums, and when and how to use them