String representation of an Enum

Question

I have the following enumeration:

public enum AuthenticationMethod
{
    FORMS = 1,
    WINDOWSAUTHENTICATION = 2,
    SINGLESIGNON = 3
}

T

Answer 1

How I solved this as an extension method:

using System.ComponentModel;
public static string GetDescription(this Enum value)
{
    var descriptionAttribute = (DescriptionAttribute)value.GetType()
        .GetField(value.ToString())
        .GetCustomAttributes(false)
        .Where(a => a is DescriptionAttribute)
        .FirstOrDefault();

    return descriptionAttribute != null ? descriptionAttribute.Description : value.ToString();
}

Enum:

public enum OrderType
{
    None = 0,
    [Description("New Card")]
    NewCard = 1,
    [Description("Reload")]
    Refill = 2
}

Usage (where o.OrderType is a property with the same name as the enum):

o.OrderType.GetDescription()

Which gives me a string of "New Card" or "Reload" instead of the actual enum value NewCard and Refill.