How to use DescriptionAttribute to achieve enum names with spaces?

Question

How can I use the DescriptionAttibute to achieve the following with enums? Note the spaces in the enum values.

public enum PersonGender
    {
        Unknown = 0,
        Male = 1,
        Female = 2,
        Intersex = 3,
        Indeterminate = 3,
        Non Stated = 9,
        Inadequately Described = 9
    }

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:11

For example you can use like that:

It is our enum:

public enum MyEnum
{
   [Description("Description for Foo")]
   Foo,
   [Description("Description for Bar")]
   Bar
}

And our method for getting Attribute.

public static string GetDescription(this Enum value)
{
    Type type = value.GetType();
    string name = Enum.GetName(type, value);
    if (name != null)
    {
        FieldInfo field = type.GetField(name);
        if (field != null)
        {
             DescriptionAttribute attr =
                    Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(field,
                    typeof(DescriptionAttribute)) as DescriptionAttribute;
              if (attr != null)
              {
                   return attr.Description;
              }
        }
    }
    return null;
}

And you can get description:

  MyEnum x = MyEnum.Foo;
  string description = x.GetDescription();

Source

I don't understand why it is so complicated to the enum description attribute. Isn't there an in-built function to access it? — CJ7, Mar 17 '13 at 08:13

How to use DescriptionAttribute to achieve enum names with spaces?

1 Answers1