Enum Tostring With User Friendly Strings

Enum ToString with user friendly strings

I use the Description attribute from the System.ComponentModel namespace. Simply decorate the enum:

private enum PublishStatusValue
{
    [Description("Not Completed")]
    NotCompleted,
    Completed,
    Error
};

Then use this code to retrieve it:

public static string GetDescription<T>(this T enumerationValue)
    where T : struct
{
    Type type = enumerationValue.GetType();
    if (!type.IsEnum)
    {
        throw new ArgumentException("EnumerationValue must be of Enum type", "enumerationValue");
    }

    //Tries to find a DescriptionAttribute for a potential friendly name
    //for the enum
    MemberInfo[] memberInfo = type.GetMember(enumerationValue.ToString());
    if (memberInfo != null && memberInfo.Length > 0)
    {
        object[] attrs = memberInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);

        if (attrs != null && attrs.Length > 0)
        {
            //Pull out the description value
            return ((DescriptionAttribute)attrs[0]).Description;
        }
    }
    //If we have no description attribute, just return the ToString of the enum
    return enumerationValue.ToString();
}

Associating enums with strings in C#

I like to use properties in a class instead of methods, since they look more enum-like.

Here's an example for a Logger:

public class LogCategory
{
    private LogCategory(string value) { Value = value; }

    public string Value { get; private set; }

    public static LogCategory Trace   { get { return new LogCategory("Trace"); } }
    public static LogCategory Debug   { get { return new LogCategory("Debug"); } }
    public static LogCategory Info    { get { return new LogCategory("Info"); } }
    public static LogCategory Warning { get { return new LogCategory("Warning"); } }
    public static LogCategory Error   { get { return new LogCategory("Error"); } }
}

Pass in type-safe string values as a parameter:

public static void Write(string message, LogCategory logCategory)
{
    var log = new LogEntry { Message = message };
    Logger.Write(log, logCategory.Value);
}

Usage:

Logger.Write("This is almost like an enum.", LogCategory.Info);

Friendly Enum Strings With Flags Attribute

You can write a method just as in the answer you link, but with support for flag enums, and return a comma seperated string, something like:

public static string GetDescription(Enum value)
{
    Type type = value.GetType();
    var values = Enum.GetValues(type);
    var setValues = new List<Enum>();
    foreach(var enumValue in values)
    {
        if (value.HasFlag((Enum)enumValue))
            setValues.Add((Enum)enumValue);
    }
    var stringList = new List<string>();
    foreach (var singleValue in setValues)
    {
        var name = Enum.GetName(type, singleValue);
        if (name != null)
        {
            FieldInfo field = type.GetField(name);
            if (field != null)
            {
                DescriptionAttribute attr =
                       Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(field,
                         typeof(DescriptionAttribute)) as DescriptionAttribute;
                if (attr != null)
                {
                    stringList.Add(attr.Description);
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return string.Join(",", stringList.ToArray());
}

not the cleanest code, but you get the idea, only keep in my mind, that it wont work as expected for enums that are not flags - just throwing an idea.

Using Enum values as String literals

You can't. I think you have FOUR options here. All four offer a solution but with a slightly different approach...

Option One: use the built-in name() on an enum. This is perfectly fine if you don't need any special naming format.

    String name = Modes.mode1.name(); // Returns the name of this enum constant, exactly as declared in its enum declaration.

Option Two: add overriding properties to your enums if you want more control

public enum Modes {
    mode1 ("Fancy Mode 1"),
    mode2 ("Fancy Mode 2"),
    mode3 ("Fancy Mode 3");

    private final String name;       

    private Modes(String s) {
        name = s;
    }

    public boolean equalsName(String otherName) {
        // (otherName == null) check is not needed because name.equals(null) returns false 
        return name.equals(otherName);
    }

    public String toString() {
       return this.name;
    }
}

Option Three: use static finals instead of enums:

public final class Modes {

    public static final String MODE_1 = "Fancy Mode 1";
    public static final String MODE_2 = "Fancy Mode 2";
    public static final String MODE_3 = "Fancy Mode 3";

    private Modes() { }
}

Option Four: interfaces have every field public, static and final:

public interface Modes {

    String MODE_1 = "Fancy Mode 1";
    String MODE_2 = "Fancy Mode 2";
    String MODE_3 = "Fancy Mode 3";  
}

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