Get the Enum value Description

Question

I have my enumHelper class that contains these:

public static IList<T> GetValues()
{
  IList<T> list = new List<T>();
  foreach (object value in Enum.GetValues(typeof(T)))
  {
    list.Add((T)value);
  }
  return list;
}

and

public static string Description(Enum value)
{
  Attribute DescAttribute = LMIGHelper.GetAttribute(value, typeof(DescriptionAttribute));
  if (DescAttribute == null)
    return value.ToString();
  else
    return ((DescriptionAttribute)DescAttribute).Description;
}

my enum is something like:

public enum OutputType
{
    File,
    [Description("Data Table")]
    DataTable
}

So far so good. All the previous work fine. Now I want to add a new helper to return BindingList>, so I can link any enum to any combo using

BindingList<KeyValuePair<OutputType, string>> list = Enum<OutputType>.GetBindableList();
cbo.datasource=list;
cbo.DisplayMember="Value";
cbo.ValueMember="Key";

For that I added:

public static BindingList<KeyValuePair<T, string>> GetBindingList()
{
    BindingList<KeyValuePair<T, string>> list = new BindingList<KeyValuePair<T, string>>();
    foreach (T value in Enum<T>.GetValues())
    {
        string Desc = Enum<T>.Description(value);
        list.Add(new KeyValuePair<T, string>(value, Desc));
    }
    return list;
}

But "Enum.Description(value)" is not even compiling: Argument '1': cannot convert from 'T' to 'System.Enum'

How can I do that? Is that even possible?

Thank you.

Is your Description method supposed to be an extension method? If so, you missed out the this keyword. — Jeff Yates, Nov 18 '08 at 22:26
See my answer on this question https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6145888/how-to-bind-an-enum-to-a-combobox-control-in-wpf/12430331#12430331 — Nick, Apr 20 '16 at 17:25

Scott Dorman · Answer 1 · 2011-08-13T02:56:00.867

Take a look at this article. You can do this using the System.ComponentModel.DescriptionAttribute or creating your own attribute:

/// <summary>
/// Provides a description for an enumerated type.
/// </summary>
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Enum | AttributeTargets.Field, 
 AllowMultiple = false)]
public sealed class EnumDescriptionAttribute :  Attribute
{
   private string description;

   /// <summary>
   /// Gets the description stored in this attribute.
   /// </summary>
   /// <value>The description stored in the attribute.</value>
   public string Description
   {
      get
      {
         return this.description;
      }
   }

   /// <summary>
   /// Initializes a new instance of the
   /// <see cref="EnumDescriptionAttribute"/> class.
   /// </summary>
   /// <param name="description">The description to store in this attribute.
   /// </param>
   public EnumDescriptionAttribute(string description)
       : base()
   {
       this.description = description;
   }
}

You then need to decorate the enum values with this new attribute:

public enum SimpleEnum
{
   [EnumDescription("Today")]
   Today,

   [EnumDescription("Last 7 days")]
   Last7,

   [EnumDescription("Last 14 days")]
   Last14,

   [EnumDescription("Last 30 days")]
   Last30,

   [EnumDescription("All")]
   All
}

All of the "magic" takes place in the following extension methods:

/// <summary>
/// Provides a static utility object of methods and properties to interact
/// with enumerated types.
/// </summary>
public static class EnumHelper
{
   /// <summary>
   /// Gets the <see cref="DescriptionAttribute" /> of an <see cref="Enum" /> 
   /// type value.
   /// </summary>
   /// <param name="value">The <see cref="Enum" /> type value.</param>
   /// <returns>A string containing the text of the
   /// <see cref="DescriptionAttribute"/>.</returns>
   public static string GetDescription(this Enum value)
   {
      if (value == null)
      {
         throw new ArgumentNullException("value");
      }

      string description = value.ToString();
      FieldInfo fieldInfo = value.GetType().GetField(description);
      EnumDescriptionAttribute[] attributes =
         (EnumDescriptionAttribute[])
       fieldInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(EnumDescriptionAttribute), false);

      if (attributes != null && attributes.Length > 0)
      {
         description = attributes[0].Description;
      }
      return description;
   }

   /// <summary>
   /// Converts the <see cref="Enum" /> type to an <see cref="IList" /> 
   /// compatible object.
   /// </summary>
   /// <param name="type">The <see cref="Enum"/> type.</param>
   /// <returns>An <see cref="IList"/> containing the enumerated
   /// type value and description.</returns>
   public static IList ToList(this Type type)
   {
      if (type == null)
      {
         throw new ArgumentNullException("type");
      }

      ArrayList list = new ArrayList();
      Array enumValues = Enum.GetValues(type);

      foreach (Enum value in enumValues)
      {
         list.Add(new KeyValuePair<Enum, string>(value, GetDescription(value)));
      }

      return list;
   }
}

Finally, you can then simply bind the combobox:

combo.DataSource = typeof(SimpleEnum).ToList();

Is there any specific reason to use ArrayList here? Wouldn't List be better? — nawfal, Jun 10 '13 at 07:45
@Scott Thanks for your code.if we want to return an int value instead of an enum in the list . we can use Convert.toInt(value). ref:http://stackoverflow.com/questions/908543/how-to-convert-from-system-enum-to-base-integer hope this helps someone. — Ram, Feb 02 '14 at 07:36

Bryan Watts · Answer 2 · 2008-11-22T02:23:35.007

You should change:

public static string Description(Enum value)
{
  ...
}

to

public static string Description(T value)
{
   ...
}

so it accepts a value of the enumeration. Now here is where it gets tricky: you have a value, but attributes decorate the field which holds the value.

You actually need to reflect over the enumeration's fields and check the value of each against the value you've been given (results should be cached for performance):

foreach(var field in typeof(T).GetFields())
{
    T fieldValue;

    try
    {
        fieldValue = (T) field.GetRawConstantValue();
    }
    catch(InvalidOperationException)
    {
        // For some reason, one of the fields returned is {Int32 value__},
        // which throws an InvalidOperationException if you try and retrieve
        // its constant value.
        //
        // I am unsure how to check for this state before
        // attempting GetRawConstantValue().

        continue;
    }

    if(fieldValue == value)
    {
        var attribute = LMIGHelper.GetAttribute(field, typeof(DescriptionAttribute)) as DescriptionAttribute;

        return attribute == null ? value.ToString() : attribute.Description;
    }
}

Edit addressing the follow-up question

The FillComboFromEnum method is missing the type parameter for the enum. Try this:

public static void FillComboFromEnum<T>(ComboBox Cbo, BindingList<KeyValuePair<T, string>> List) where T : struct

Notice I constrained the type to be a struct. It's not a full enumeration constraint, but it's closer than nothing.

score -2 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 17 '08 at 23:23

Enum doesn't have a Description() method. The best you could do is have your enum implement an interface that has the Description() method. If you do that, then you can have

public static BindingList<KeyValuePair<T extends _interface_, String>> getBindingList()

and then inside of that you can refer to

T foo = ...?
foo.Description(...);

Get the Enum value Description

3 Answers3

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