How Can I Add Friendly Names and Descriptions to My C# Enums?

Enhancing enumerations with description attributes: giving enumerations a clearer meaning

In programming, an enumeration is a powerful tool used to represent a set of different values. However, giving enumeration values ​​more meaningful names can often be a challenge. Let’s dive into this problem and its possible solutions.

Pursue friendly names

The need to give user-friendly names to enumeration values ​​stems from the need for code clarity and readability. As shown in the following example:

public enum myEnum
{
    ThisNameWorks, 
    This Name doesn't work,
    Neither.does.this
}

With this approach, it is difficult to discern the intended meaning behind the enumeration value. Instead, we need a way to define an enumeration with a name that more clearly expresses its purpose.

Use the Description attribute to unlock the description

Fortunately, C# provides an elegant solution: DescriptionAttribute properties. By applying this property to an enumeration field, you can associate a custom description with each value. Here’s how:

[Description("Foo的描述")]
Foo,
[Description("Bar的描述")]
Bar

You can retrieve these descriptions at runtime using the provided extension methods:

public static string GetDescription(this Enum value)
{
    // ... 实现代码在此处
}

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

With this improved approach, enumerations now contain not only raw values, but also meaningful descriptions, which aids in understanding and maintaining your codebase. Use friendly enumerations to improve code readability and enhance development experience.

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