Hi,
in this post I will show how to read a description attribute of an enum value by reflection. Let us assume we have a enum linke this
public enum MetalBands {
[DescriptionAttribute("This is Metallica from CA")]
Metallica,
[DescriptionAttribute("This is Slayer from CA")]
Slayer,
[DescriptionAttribute("This is Overkill from NY")]
Overkill
};
Two steps are necessary
Get the Fieldinfo of the the enum value
System.Reflection.FieldInfo oFieldInfo=MetalBands.Metallica.GetType().GetField(MetalBands.Metallica.ToString());
and get all attributes of type DescriptionAttribute
DescriptionAttribute[] attributes = (DescriptionAttribute[])oFieldInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
if an attribute exists print it. We have only one definied , therefore the attribute is at index 0
if (attributes.Length > 0)
{
System.Console.WriteLine(attributes[0].Description);
}
That’s it.
And as a function 🙂
public static string GetDescription(MetalBands Band)
{
System.Reflection.FieldInfo oFieldInfo = Band.GetType().GetField(Band.ToString());
DescriptionAttribute[] attributes = (DescriptionAttribute[])oFieldInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
if (attributes.Length > 0)
{
return attributes[0].Description;
}
else
{
return Band.ToString();
}
}
System.Console.WriteLine(GetDescription(MetalBands.Metallica));
Have fun
Michael
