How to have userfriendly names for enumerations? [duplicate]

Answer 1

The use of attributes as in the other answers is a good way to go, but if you just want to use the text from the values of the enum, the following code will split based on the camel-casing of the value:

public static string GetDescriptionOf(Enum enumType)
{
    Regex capitalLetterMatch = new Regex("\\B[A-Z]", RegexOptions.Compiled);
    return capitalLetterMatch.Replace(enumType.ToString(), " $&");
}

Calling GetDescriptionOf(Complexity.NotSoComplex) will return Not So Complex. This can be used with any enum value.

To make it more useful, you could make it an extension method:

public static string ToFriendlyString(this Enum enumType)
{
    Regex capitalLetterMatch = new Regex("\\B[A-Z]", RegexOptions.Compiled);
    return capitalLetterMatch.Replace(enumType.ToString(), " $&");
}

You cal now call it using Complexity.NotSoComplex.ToFriendlyString() to return Not So Complex.

---

EDIT: just noticed that in your question you mention that you need to localise the text. In that case, I'd use an attribute to contain a key to look up the localised value, but default to the friendly string method as a last resort if the localised text cannot be found. You would define you enums like this:

enum Complexity
{
    [LocalisedEnum("Complexity.NotSoComplex")]
    NotSoComplex,
    [LocalisedEnum("Complexity.LittleComplex")]
    LittleComplex,
    [LocalisedEnum("Complexity.Complex")]
    Complex,
    [LocalisedEnum("Complexity.VeryComplex")]
    VeryComplex
}

You would also need this code:

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Field, AllowMultiple=false, Inherited=true)]
public class LocalisedEnum : Attribute
{
    public string LocalisationKey{get;set;}

    public LocalisedEnum(string localisationKey)
    {
        LocalisationKey = localisationKey;
    }
}

public static class LocalisedEnumExtensions
{
    public static string ToLocalisedString(this Enum enumType)
    {
        // default value is the ToString();
        string description = enumType.ToString();

        try
        {
            bool done = false;

            MemberInfo[] memberInfo = enumType.GetType().GetMember(enumType.ToString());

            if (memberInfo != null && memberInfo.Length > 0)
            {
                object[] attributes = memberInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(LocalisedEnum), false);

                if (attributes != null && attributes.Length > 0)
                {
                    LocalisedEnum descriptionAttribute = attributes[0] as LocalisedEnum;

                    if (description != null && descriptionAttribute != null)
                    {
                        string desc = TranslationHelper.GetTranslation(descriptionAttribute.LocalisationKey);

                        if (desc != null)
                        {
                            description = desc;
                            done = true;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }

            if (!done)
            {
                Regex capitalLetterMatch = new Regex("\\B[A-Z]", RegexOptions.Compiled);
                description = capitalLetterMatch.Replace(enumType.ToString(), " $&");
            }
        }
        catch
        {
            description = enumType.ToString();
        }

        return description;
    }
}

To get the localised descriptions, you would then call:

Complexity.NotSoComplex.ToLocalisedString()

This has several fallback cases:

• if the enum has a LocalisedEnum attribute defined, it will use the key to look up the translated text
• if the enum has a LocalisedEnum attribute defined but no localised text is found, it defaults to using the camel-case split method
• if the enum does not have a LocalisedEnum attribute defined, it will use the camel-case split method
• upon any error, it defaults to the ToString of the enum value