How Can I Get User-Friendly Strings from Enums in C#?

Displaying Enums with Human-Readable Strings in C#

Enums are valuable for representing named constants, but directly displaying their values often lacks clarity for users. This guide demonstrates how to map enum values to user-friendly strings without the reverse string-to-value conversion.

The solution leverages the Description attribute from System.ComponentModel. By applying this attribute to your enum members, you provide a more descriptive label for each value.

Example:

<code class="language-csharp">private enum PublishStatusValue
{
    [Description("Not Completed")]
    NotCompleted,
    Completed,
    Error
}</code>

Retrieving User-Friendly Strings:

The following extension method retrieves the description or the enum's default string representation if no description is found:

<code class="language-csharp">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");
    }

    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)
        {
            return ((DescriptionAttribute)attrs[0]).Description;
        }
    }
    return enumerationValue.ToString();
}</code>

This method efficiently provides user-friendly output, enhancing code readability and user experience.

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