Enum With String Values In C#

First I created the new custom attribute class, the source is below:

    /// <summary>
    /// This attribute is used to represent a string value
    /// for a value in an enum.
    /// </summary>
    public class StringValueAttribute : Attribute {

        #region Properties

        /// <summary>
        /// Holds the stringvalue for a value in an enum.
        /// </summary>
        public string StringValue { get; protected set; }

        #endregion

        #region Constructor

        /// <summary>
        /// Constructor used to init a StringValue Attribute
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="value"></param>
        public StringValueAttribute(string value) {
            this.StringValue = value;
        }

        #endregion

    }

 
Then I created a new Extension Method which I will use to get the string value for an enums value:

        /// <summary>
        /// Will get the string value for a given enums value, this will
        /// only work if you assign the StringValue attribute to
        /// the items in your enum.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="value"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public static string GetStringValue(this Enum value) {
            // Get the type
            Type type = value.GetType();

            // Get fieldinfo for this type
            FieldInfo fieldInfo = type.GetField(value.ToString());

            // Get the stringvalue attributes
            StringValueAttribute[] attribs = fieldInfo.GetCustomAttributes(
                typeof(StringValueAttribute), false) as StringValueAttribute[];

            // Return the first if there was a match.
            return attribs.Length > 0 ? attribs[0].StringValue : null;
        }
 

So now create your enum and add the StringValue attributes to your values:

 public enum Test : int {
        [StringValue("a")]
        Foo = 1,
        [StringValue("b")]
        Something = 2        
 } 


Now you are ready to go, to get the string value for a value in the enum you can do so like this now:

Test t = Test.Foo;
string val = t.GetStringValue();

- or even -

string val = Test.Foo.GetStringValue();

 

---------------

public class Cls_EnumHandle
    {
        public string GetDescription(Enum value)
        {
            Type type = value.GetType();

            MemberInfo[] memInfo = type.GetMember(value.ToString());

            if (memInfo != null && memInfo.Length > 0)
            {
                object[] attrs = memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);

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

            return value.ToString();

        }

        public IList ToList(Type type)
        {
            if (type == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("type");
            if (!type.IsEnum) throw new ArgumentException("Type provided must be an Enum.", "type");

            ArrayList list = new ArrayList();
            Array array = Enum.GetValues(type);
            foreach (Enum value in array)
            {
                list.Add(new KeyValuePair<Enum, string>(value, GetDescription(value)));
            }

            return list;
        }
    }

    [AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Enum | AttributeTargets.Field, AllowMultiple = false)]

    public class EnumDescriptionAttribute : Attribute
    {
        private string description;

        public string Description
        {
            get
            {
                return this.description;
            }
        }

        public EnumDescriptionAttribute(string description)
            : base()
        {
            this.description = description;
        }
    }

            DropDownList1.DataSource = new Cls_EnumHandle().ToList(typeof(SqlOperator));
            DropDownList1.DataTextField = "Value";
            DropDownList1.DataValueField = "Key";
            DropDownList1.DataBind();

http://weblogs.asp.net/stefansedich/archive/2008/03/12/enum-with-string-values-in-c.aspx