Using a Description Attribute with Enumerations

• Posted by miketeye on October 9, 2011
• 1 comments

Simple extension class to help use the description attribute with enumeration instances

public static class Extensions
    {
        public static string ToDescriptionString(this Enum currentEnum)
        {
            var fi = currentEnum.GetType().GetField(currentEnum.ToString());
            var da = (DescriptionAttribute)Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(fi, typeof(DescriptionAttribute));
            return da != null ? da.Description : currentEnum.ToString();
        }

        public static object ParseWithDescriptionAttribute(this System.Enum value, string valueToParse)
        {
            //Get the Description String Attribute if any exists on the enum value
            string descString = value.ToDescriptionString();
            if (descString == valueToParse || value.ToString() == valueToParse)
            {
                return Enum.Parse(value.GetType(), value.ToString());
            }
            else return null;
        }
    }

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